Five hundred spaces a fortnight will be allocated in managed isolation facilities over the next 10 months, many for skilled and critical workers to support our economic recovery, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor say.
“The trans-Tasman bubble has freed up more rooms, allowing us to allocate more places in managed isolation for critical workers,” Hipkins said.
“It has given us flexibility to expand our engagement with the rest of the world on a targeted basis and attract skills and people needed to drive our economic recovery, while carefully managing risks of bringing in covid-19.”
About 500 MIQs rooms will be made available for “large groups” every fortnight. These include spaces for:
Around 300 RSE workers every month from June – with a total of 2400 arriving by March 2022;
300 specialised construction workers between June and October;
400 international students for arrival in June, out of the 1000 previously; announced, for the start of semester two;
100 refugees every six weeks from July.
O’Connor says the dedicated spaces in MIQ and renewed border exceptions will provide our agriculture, horticulture and viticulture sectors with the additional workforce to support our rural communities and help drive New Zealand’s economic recovery from covid-19.
“The Government and food and fibre sector have been working hard to mitigate worker shortages by training and upskilling New Zealanders, but there is still the need for additional labour,” O’Connor said.
“This decision should see around 2400 more RSE workers entering New Zealand in time for next summer’s harvest season and pruning this winter. This is in addition to the 7300 RSE workers currently in the country, including the 2000 the Government-approved to support the horticulture and viticulture industries during the recent summer harvest season.
“Border class exceptions have also been agreed for 40 more shearers and 125 rural mobile plant machinery operators for the 2021-22 season – subject to completion of sector workforce plans, a model to upskill New Zealanders and agreed wage rates,” he said.
The horticulture industry has welcomed the move.
“Pacific workers are an integral part of the horticulture industry’s seasonal workforce, particularly for harvest and winter pruning. They make up the shortfall in New Zealanders while at the same time, enabling the horticulture industry to grow and employ more New Zealanders in permanent positions,’ HortNZ chief executive Mike Chapman said.
“Indeed, over the past decade, the New Zealand horticulture industry has grown by 64% to $6.49 billion while in 2019, before covid struck, more than $40 million was returned to Pacific economies through the RSE scheme.”
Farming leaders, though, are disappointed there’s no room for the workers dairy farmers require.
Federated Farmers believes the pressure some farming families are now under, due to a severe lack of people to work on farms, is already taking a toll on stress levels, wellbeing and health.
“Farmers have been telling us for well over a year there is a real shortage of suitable dairy staff,” Federated Farmers employment and immigration spokesperson Chris Lewis said.
“I am getting daily calls about the labour situation and many farmers don’t know what to do for the coming season.
“I’m a farmer, not a social worker and I don’t know what to tell these people. As every dairy farmer knows the cows will always get milked, the question is, at what cost?”
There are 1250 jobs advertised on the Farm Source website today, 100 more than in March.
“And while the unemployment rate continues to fall, it’s obvious to see where the pressure is going on in small rural communities,” he said.
