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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge.

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Speaker 2: The government's making changes to the accredited employer of Visa

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Speaker 2: to make it easier for businesses to hire migrants. From March,

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Speaker 2: the minimum experience requirement and the median wage threshold of

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Speaker 2: thirty one dollars an hour for skilled migrants will be gone.

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Speaker 2: The labor market test will also be simplified significantly. Immigration

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Speaker 2: Minister Erica Stanford is with me tonight's minister. Good evening,

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Speaker 2: good evening, How are you very well? Thank you, nice

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Speaker 2: to have you on the program. Is this just going

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Speaker 2: to be a race to the bottom, then you can

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Speaker 2: do you know, more more workers coming in, skilled workers

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Speaker 2: coming in and just pay them whatever you want. No.

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Speaker 1: And the reason I'm saying no is earlier in the

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Speaker 1: year we put some things in place to make sure

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Speaker 1: that we're altering the skills mix to more highly skilled

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Speaker 1: migrants and fewer lower skilled migrants. And the way that

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Speaker 1: we did that was we said, look, you need to

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Speaker 1: come in with a certain number of years experience. We

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Speaker 1: said three years, and you need to speak English, which

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Speaker 1: is actually a good proxy for skill. And so any

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Speaker 1: migrants that are coming in are going to have to

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Speaker 1: have We've been talking to the few different sectors and

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Speaker 1: fed farmers in particular, who have said, actually two years

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Speaker 1: skill is a much better workable solution for them. And

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Speaker 1: we've listened to the sector and said, actually that makes

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Speaker 1: good sense, and so we've made a few tweaks, but

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Speaker 1: essentially we are still making sure that New Zealanders are

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Speaker 1: being put forward first for those entry level jobs because

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Speaker 1: we know we've got a number of young people coming

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Speaker 1: out of school who need access into the labor market,

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Speaker 1: and so those jobs will be available first and foremost.

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Speaker 2: Four keywis what do you expect that they will be paid?

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Speaker 2: If the median threshold of thirty one dollars is too high?

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Speaker 2: What do you expect that these people with two years

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Speaker 2: of experienced minimum and English will be paid?

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Speaker 1: Well, they'll be paid at a rate that is commensurate

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Speaker 1: with their skills and experience, which is what you do

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Speaker 1: with every key worker in this country. The problem we've

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Speaker 1: had ryan over the last few years under the previous government,

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Speaker 1: as you've been bringing low skilled workers to fill low

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Speaker 1: skilled roles and having to pay them the median wage,

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Speaker 1: which is paying them more than the key we standing

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Speaker 1: next to them, and it's caused huge problems for employers.

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Speaker 1: You know, who've got you know, their Kei workers sitting

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Speaker 1: there doing the same job for and being paid a

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Speaker 1: lower amount, and so it's really skewed the market. So

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Speaker 1: there will be you know, when we're bringing people, and

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Speaker 1: of course immigration officers on the front line will be

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Speaker 1: looking at what is the you know, the market rate

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Speaker 1: for someone and knowing that you know, a migrant is

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Speaker 1: coming in with two years experience, they would they would

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Speaker 1: question any employer bringing someone in on the minimum wage.

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Speaker 1: That would raise a red red flag for an immigration

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Speaker 1: officer on the ground.

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Speaker 2: Are you worried this or mean businesses choose to hire

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Speaker 2: migrants over New Zealanders when they might have gone with

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Speaker 2: the kiwis in the first place.

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Speaker 1: No, I don't think so, because it is still more

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Speaker 1: expensive and more cumbersome to bring a migrant into the country.

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Speaker 1: You know, you have to be accredited, you have to

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Speaker 1: get a job check, then you've got to go through

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Speaker 1: the visa process and that takes time. Employers, you know,

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Speaker 1: if and you will have to hire someone who's got

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Speaker 1: a minimum level of skills and experience, where if you

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Speaker 1: wanted to hire a Keywi, it's much quicker, much simpler,

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Speaker 1: and much more.

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Speaker 2: Cost If you want why were we doing it in

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Speaker 2: the first place. I mean, they must be better workers

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Speaker 2: than us.

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Speaker 1: Then, oh, you'll have to ask that, you know, the

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Speaker 1: previous government why they had those settings in place. But

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Speaker 1: this is going to make this is going to mean

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Speaker 1: a lot of business.

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Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean?

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Speaker 1: Though?

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Speaker 2: If you're an employer and you have to pay the

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Speaker 2: migrant more than you do the keiw, why would you

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Speaker 2: bother getting the migrant Because.

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Speaker 1: You have to remember when after after COVID, we had

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Speaker 1: a huge labor market shortage because everybody left New Zealand

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Speaker 1: and people were desperate. And it didn't They just got

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Speaker 1: people in warm bodies. That's what they've said to me.

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Speaker 1: We've got brought warm bodies in and we had to

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Speaker 1: pay them the medium wage even for doing completely unskilled

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Speaker 1: jobs because there was just a massive need for it.

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Speaker 1: And it's massively skewed the market.

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Speaker 2: All right, Hey minister, how does it feel everyone saying

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Speaker 2: you're the best Minister of the year and all that

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Speaker 2: kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: Ah, I don't like. I don't pay attention that it's

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Speaker 1: a team effet and you know, as you know, I

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Speaker 1: couldn't do my job without the support of our incredible

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister.

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Speaker 2: Ah, there we go. Very humble, very humble. What a politician,

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Speaker 2: Eric and master tip to you again, Eric Stanford, Immigration

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Speaker 2: minister and number one in many's books. For more from

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