The Government’s decision to freeze managed isolation (MIQ) bookings has furthered the frustration of short-staffed dairy farmers desperate for more workers, DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle says.
The freeze means a further delay for farmers getting migrant staff into New Zealand granted under the exemption for 200 foreign dairy workers announced earlier this year. The industry estimates it is short of at least 2000 staff.
Mackle says it was unlikely these staff would be now cleared of MIQ before the new year. Any people who are brought in to work in the dairy industry will now be targeted for next season.
“This pause, this further delay is going to push that out even further,” Mackle said.
“We have been pleading with the Government that if they are going to do an exemption, then tag MIQ beds to it, so once your visa is approved your bed is ready.”
Currently, these workers had to book a bed themselves through the online system.
“We are already aware there is limited MIQ space until December and the pause will make that delay even bigger given we’re working through visa applications, we’re working with the Government and the entire process needs to be improved, simplified and made more practical,” he said.
Mackle says tagging those MIQ spaces to an approved visa was an easy, practical change the Government could make, not just for the dairy industry, but for other sectors also facing staffing shortages.
“If we are going to be in this situation for some time to come, we have got to get this process more streamlined,” he said.
“It’s very frustrating out there for everyone.”
He recalled an email from a short-staffed Southland sharemilker that “brought tears to my eyes” because the farmer did not know how he was going to make it through the rest of the season.
The focus, he says, had to be on how to get the immigration system working better in time for next season while at the same time, retaining existing staff and stopping them shifting to other countries because of the promise of residency for their families.
“Migrant workers have told me of their own friends and family who have left for Canada and have continued to go to Australia,” he said.
“If we don’t get this sorted, we’re in trouble, we’ll lose a lot of people to Australia and Canada.”
The promise of residency was a huge attraction because it provided security for their families.
It was tough for the dairy industry to compete with that, he says – but what the Government had to get right was the immigration settings.
“The whole system needs to be looked at. It’s not just one thing, it’s a bunch of things we have to get right and I think the stakes have gone up,” he said.
