With Labour announcing a cabinet reshuffle – instituting Peeni Henare as the new Tourism Minister – National spokespeople say Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ “shuffling of the deck chairs around Tourism will be no consolation for the thousands of tourism businesses who remain desperately short of staff”.
In a joint statement, National’s Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford and Tourism spokesperson Todd McClay say the new cabinet appointment for Tourism will have little to no impact on the challenges faced by the industry.
“There may be a new Labour leader and a new Minister, but the same problems exist for tourism businesses,” says National tourism spokesperson Todd McClay.
“The latest data shows the tourism sector could be short as many as 80,000 staff – around 13,000 more than estimated last year.
“As international visitors have started to return to our shores, many have found bars and restaurants closed or service slow because of Labour’s failure to address worker shortages and speed up visa processing.
“National values tourism,” says McClay. “We see it as one of our core industries and a great driver of economic growth, particularly in the regions. Prior to COVID-19 tourism was New Zealand’s biggest export earner- bringing in $40 billion to the economy and employing more than 220,000 New Zealanders.”
The statement says National plans to attract working holiday makers to the country, focus on processing visitor and work visas, and replace the median wage requirement with an ‘industry average’, among other changes.
“We will free up immigration settings by attracting working holiday makers to New Zealand. To do that we will refund application fees if they arrive here before a certain date to encourage arrivals over the winter period and allow multiple applications for those working in industries where there are significant shortages.
“We will focus Immigration New Zealand on processing visitor and work visas as fast as possible.
“We will scrap the median wage requirement and replace it with an industry average that reflects skills and experience.
“We will make sure that key roles in the tourism sector have a pathway to residence so we can attract them here.
“We will maintain open work rights for partners of work visa holders. A skilled worker will not choose to come to New Zealand if their partner is unable to work.”
“We are in a global war for talent, and we need to make ourselves as attractive as possible to have any hope of filling the shortage of workers that is a handbrake on the economy,” says National’s Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford.
Inside Tourism has reached out to Tourism Minister Peeni Henare for comment.
