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Speaker 1: Now, the Immigration Minister, Erica Stanford has just finished giving

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Speaker 1: a speech in Auckland. She's announced a new visa for

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Speaker 1: seasonal workers to deal with upcoming worker shortages. They have

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Speaker 1: to be paid at least twenty nine dollars sixty six,

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Speaker 1: cannot work for more than nine months. And don't get

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Speaker 1: this confused with the extended fruit pick of visas that's

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Speaker 1: already been announced. This is something else. She's also laid

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Speaker 1: out her vision of a smart immigration system, trying to

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Speaker 1: balance the need for workers with more sustainable migration. Now

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Speaker 1: Alan McDonald from the AMA was listening to the speech.

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Speaker 2: Hi Allen, Hi hell.

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Speaker 1: There were suspicions that she was going to crack down

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Speaker 1: on migrants in this speech.

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Speaker 2: Has she No, she hasn't, And I think the way

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Speaker 2: she outlined thinks will be pretty much good news for

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Speaker 2: the business sector and our members certainly will welcome some

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Speaker 2: of the initiatives that she talked about today.

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Speaker 1: So she has though, encouraged New Zealanders to start training

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Speaker 1: up New Zealanders to work to work in their businesses.

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Speaker 1: Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? She has in a group of labor ministers that

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Speaker 2: includes Louise Upston and also book Lan Velle and their challenge,

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Speaker 2: and it's come from the primes to two, is that, look,

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Speaker 2: while you've had access to immigrants and skilled labor, we

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Speaker 2: really want you to train up more kiwis and get

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Speaker 2: some of those people off the job seekers and they're

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Speaker 2: non employment and training services, those eighteen to twenty four

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Speaker 2: year olds. And I think it's a justifiable challenge, but

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Speaker 2: we still need some support to help train those people

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Speaker 2: up and she outlined a pathway to do that too.

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Speaker 1: What is the pathway?

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Speaker 2: So when they've done the work on the Credited Employer

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Speaker 2: Work Visa Scheme the AAWZ, and that should be wrapped

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Speaker 2: up by the end of this year, they're going to

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Speaker 2: look at the skilled migrant pathways to permanent residents because

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Speaker 2: at the moment that's heavily weighted towards the professions and

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Speaker 2: university degrees, and they're going to look at putting more

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Speaker 2: weighting on the trades and the skills that are trained

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Speaker 2: in those trades so that we can bring in more

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Speaker 2: of those people to train up our own people and

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Speaker 2: get them through into that skilled tradeing category.

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Speaker 1: It's a very different approach to how labor approached this, right,

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Speaker 1: It's a lot more hold the hands of the employer

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Speaker 1: rather than crack down. I imagine that this is welcome.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it will be because our members are telling us,

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Speaker 2: and it's across many sectors too, that they just simply

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Speaker 2: don't have the skilled people that they need to train

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Speaker 2: up more apprentices and those sorts of things. In fact,

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Speaker 2: we heard from Rodney Wayne today about the shortage of

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Speaker 2: hairdresses which many people really suffered through COVID. With that,

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Speaker 2: so you know, it's a much more nuanced approach and

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Speaker 2: that will be the same with the Accredited Work visa

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Speaker 2: when they work through that. It's to give it more

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Speaker 2: direction and more focused rather than a broad brush approach.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's a recognition we are short in

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Speaker 2: some areas, but we do need to put more for

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Speaker 2: employers into that training and working with MSD, we're getting

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Speaker 2: some outstanding results at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Just on the new visa for the seasonal workers is helpful.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think it will be because it goes wider

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Speaker 2: than just the heart sector and the viticulture sector. So

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Speaker 2: for one of the examples was the Seafield's bringing in

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Speaker 2: ski instructors and maybe even the people to support the

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Speaker 2: steafields in the cafes and things like that. I think

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Speaker 2: it could apply to the meat industry, which is highly

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Speaker 2: seasonal of course, and maybe even if you look at

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Speaker 2: the start of the construction season, like the road work

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Speaker 2: season coincides with for better weather, so we're short in construction.

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Speaker 2: Maybe that's an option there for them as well. So

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Speaker 2: some good things from.

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Speaker 1: There, Alan, Before I let you go, just want to

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Speaker 1: quick take on what do you make of the changes

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Speaker 1: to the Companies Act. You like what you're seeing, Yeah, we.

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Speaker 2: Do like what we're saying. That particular provision around having

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Speaker 2: the director's home addresses available that wasn't great. And if so,

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Speaker 2: there's something they can do around those Phoenix companies, which

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Speaker 2: I know is a real bug ber for people losing

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Speaker 2: money in the construction sector. You know, they liquidate one

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Speaker 2: day and they reserve somewhere else doing another development under

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Speaker 2: a similar name. That that sort of behavior is something

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Speaker 2: that they can address. That that's good.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good stuff, Hey, Alan, thank you so much appreciated,

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Speaker 1: Alan McDonald or the amad the changes. This is Andrew Bailey,

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Speaker 1: the Minister for Commers and Consumer Affairs, who's been looking

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Speaker 1: into some changes in the Companies Act as as Alan

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Speaker 1: was just saying it would take the identifying details of

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Speaker 1: the shareholders and the directors, perhaps off the register which

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Speaker 1: is public. Also changes around major transactions it would, you know,

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Speaker 1: would be things like only the capital structure of a company,

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Speaker 1: or rather things related solely to the capital structure of

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Speaker 1: a company like the shares issues and the buybacks and

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Speaker 1: the dividends and redemptions would not be considered major transactions.

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Speaker 1: Update aspects of the law so things can be done online,

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Speaker 1: more things rather than manually expanding how the New Zealand

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Speaker 1: business number is used and then introducing new changes to

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Speaker 1: insolvency law and stuff like that.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to

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