PM called out over chef shortage

One Queenstown hospo boss is calling out Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government’s messaging that New Zealand needs to be ‘‘more attractive’’ to workers, in light of its bull-headed stance regarding chefs.

While the chef shortage has made many headlines over recent months, it’s actually been in play for almost a decade in the Queenstown-Lakes.

Covid has only exacerbated the issue.

Republic Hospitality Group CEO Blair Impey, who was on TVNZ’s Breakfast show last week with Queenstown mayor Glyn Lewers, says during their segment, they asked the government to ‘‘listen to the hospitality industry’’, and add chefs to the ‘green list’.

Jobs on that list are ones the government has deemed there’s a shortage of in NZ — the Immigration NZ website notes they’re ‘‘highly-skilled’’ and, should a migrant worker qualify to work here through one of them, there is a clear pathway to NZ residency.

Conversely, in Australia, the pathway to residency for chefs, for example, is automatic.

Impey: ‘‘Everybody that’s going to be coming to Queenstown will go to a local pub and they can’t order any food, because there’s no chef.

‘‘They can’t book a restaurant because there are … not enough chefs.

‘‘I want them all to [know], it’s not the hospitality industry’s fault.

‘‘It’s the government, because they haven’t enabled chefs to come in [through] a decent pathway, so, therefore, foreign chefs are choosing not to come to NZ, because it’s not as easy as going to Australia.’’

Impey says Ardern’s response last week was ‘‘very vague’’, reiterating ‘‘chefs can come here’’.

‘‘The [question] is, ‘are they on the green list?’,’’ Impey says.

‘‘And the answer is ‘no’.’’