1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,279
Speaker 1: Immigration Minister is making it easier for businesses to hire migrants.

2
00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:06,600
Speaker 1: She's changing work visa requirements again. Many businesses can pay

3
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,080
Speaker 1: them less, hire more and have them stay longer. Business

4
00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,760
Speaker 1: ends ed CEO Catherine Riches with us morning, Catherine, good morning.

5
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:13,600
Speaker 1: You like the look of this.

6
00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,120
Speaker 2: Oh look, this is great to step in the right direction.

7
00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,320
Speaker 2: There are lots of various where businesses can't get the

8
00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:22,720
Speaker 2: skills and the experience they need, and the changes of

9
00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,240
Speaker 2: Erica Stanford have made will be really welcomed.

10
00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:29,000
Speaker 1: Was that threshold that they were been forced to pay,

11
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,400
Speaker 1: which is at least the media in wage too high?

12
00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:35,279
Speaker 2: Yes it was. It ended up being an artificial proxy

13
00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,080
Speaker 2: for skill and experience. But what happened in effect was

14
00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,520
Speaker 2: that in some cases when businesses were hiring and people

15
00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,199
Speaker 2: from offshore, they ended up having to pay more than

16
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,080
Speaker 2: their key we counterparts, and you can imagine that caused

17
00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:48,720
Speaker 2: a bit of friction.

18
00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:51,080
Speaker 1: Is it weird timing to be doing this at a

19
00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:53,920
Speaker 1: time when we're probably in recession again and we're laying

20
00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,480
Speaker 1: people off or is that too simplistic. You don't just

21
00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:57,840
Speaker 1: lay people off and they find a job in a

22
00:00:57,880 --> 00:00:58,760
Speaker 1: sector that needs them.

23
00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:02,600
Speaker 2: No. I think that is a bit simplistic. There are

24
00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,119
Speaker 2: just some areas in the economy where we either don't

25
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:09,080
Speaker 2: train enough people or we don't train at all. And

26
00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:14,760
Speaker 2: there are some examples, for example in manufacturing where if

27
00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:17,440
Speaker 2: you've got to have someone who runs a particular piece

28
00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:22,440
Speaker 2: of pharmaceutical manufacturing kit or makes aluminium cans, you just

29
00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,520
Speaker 2: simply can't get enough people locally. There are lots of

30
00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:29,520
Speaker 2: areas where in New Zealand, because it's small, we simply

31
00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 2: don't train.

32
00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:33,280
Speaker 1: Catherine's really good to talk to you. I really appreciated this.

33
00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:35,160
Speaker 1: Katherine Rich Business New Zealand CEO.

34
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,000
Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

35
00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,199
Speaker 2: news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

36
00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:43,800
Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio