Economic own goal avoided

Hundreds of vital migrant dairy workers will now be able to continue working in New Zealand thanks to lobbying by Federated Farmers.

“Unbelievably, Immigration New Zealand was moving to remove skilled dairy workers from the Immediate Skills Shortage List (ISSL),” says Frank Brenmuhl, Federated Farmers Employment spokesperson.

“It might come as a surprise, given negative press about dairy, but we still have a major skill shortage. Right now, we need more than 4000 new workers annually to cover growth, retirements and people just leaving the sector.

“The average age of a dairy farmer is increasing and farms have grown in size.

“Despite it paying extremely well, we don’t have young New Zealanders entering the dairy sector. If the Assistant Herd Manager and Assistant Farm Manager categories were cancelled, it would have compromised exports.

“The industry in New Zealand currently employs about 1,300 migrant workers from countries as diverse as the Philippines, Chile and South Africa.

“Some of these workers have resided in New Zealand for a number of years and have valuable dairying experience. Sending them home would have been a complete waste of time, effort and money.

“As we cannot recruit enough talent locally, we need skilled migrant workers.

“When it comes to the Assistant Herd Managers category, it’s also a case of one step forward, two steps back. The fact is overseas-based Immigration New Zealand staff don’t understand dairy farming.

“This has led to inconsistencies in interpreting its own criteria. We now have the farcical situation whereby Immigration New Zealand sets the ISSL but then contradicts it by failing to consistently interpret it.

“Federated Farmers is working with the Department of Labour and at a ministerial level to ensure the New Zealand dairy industry has the skills and depth to remain the country’s largest export earner,” Mr Brenmuhl concluded.