Immigration Minister Michael Wood yesterday announced the changes aimed at providing immediate relief to the labour issues faced as New Zealand recovers from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Additional workers would be able to enter the country for sectors affected by international labour shortages, Mr Wood said.
Aged care, construction and infrastructure, meat processing, seafood and seasonal snow and adventure tourism sector agreements were put in place.
The working holiday visa scheme would have its cap doubled for 2022-23 so that an extra 12,000 working holidaymakers would be able to enter New Zealand.
Further, working holidaymakers already in the country with visas expiring between August 26 and May 31 next year would have their visas extended for six months, he said.
"Since our borders have fully reopened we are seeing the return of working holidaymakers, with approximately 4000 already in country and over 21,000 have had their application to work here approved," the minister said.
"Covid brought the world to a standstill.
"While we can ensure the ability for those to come and work here, we acknowledge that people-to-people movement globally remains slow when compared to pre-Covid levels, and this is being particularly felt by the hospitality and tourism sectors who traditionally rely on international workers."
Nevertheless, Queenstown Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ruth Stokes called the announcement "more of the same".
She said the changes did not address the underlying issues.
Businesses were competing globally; far fewer people were applying to come; entering the country was an expensive and time-consuming process for businesses and applicants; and when people arrived, this was an expensive place to live, she said.
"Setting immigration policy at a national level is punishing the regions, and we would like to see Government support for local initiatives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of worker attraction and retention as well as improving business capability."
Rees Hotel chief executive Mark Rose was more charitable. He called the announcement welcome news.
Otago’s tourism hot spot had been under significant pressure since the borders reopened, he said.
There were restaurants in the area that remained closed due to staffing issues and only 80% of his hotel was open.
His staff were well paid and well looked after and yet it remained difficult to employ anybody, he said.
People had understandably left the tourism industry and gone into other industries where they were not going to be at the mercy of the pandemic, he said.
"We just run adverts continually and we get no replies," he said.
However, he had spent much of the past 90 days travelling internationally to visit the company’s markets, and everywhere he went was in the same position.
"We’ve got to be a bit aware here, it’s not a New Zealand problem, it’s a worldwide problem."
NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said the changes were welcome even if they were "very late" in the present ski season, which ended in October.
The biggest group of skilled workers the industry required were snow sports instructors, but there were also technical roles such as workshop technicians or groomer operators that had been affected by border policies.
Snow sports instructors were particularly likely to require open borders. The instructors came from all over the world and typically worked in North America and Europe during New Zealand’s summer before venturing to the southern hemisphere to chase the snow, he said.
"If we can hold this sort of pragmatism that’s been offered by this sort of relaxation of the restrictions, that will certainly help us staff up for next year."
Most international staff were here on working holiday visas.
"What we would dearly love to see is immigration New Zealand increase its processing speeds, because those are very, very slow and it takes too long ... to get visas when you just don’t have the workers available in New Zealand."
