New Zealand yesterday announced plans to tighten rules for temporary worker visas to encourage firms to hire more local people and send more migrant workers to regions outside its main cities.
The proposed scheme would ramp up oversight of employers planning to hire migrants on temporary work visas, including checks to ensure that no New Zealander could do the job instead.
“Overall, the proposals will ensure that access to work visas is better matched to where there are genuine and high-skill needs, and that the system provides more incentives and support for businesses to employ more New Zealanders,” said Iain Lees-Galloway, New Zealand’s minister for workplace relations, immigration and the Accident Compensation Corp.
“The proposed changes represent a significant shift in how we operate our immigration system in the best interests of the New Zealand economy and our regions,” he said in a statement.
The government said it would accept consultation with affected businesses until March and make a final decision on the scheme in the middle of next year.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party-led government took the helm last year with a campaign promise to tighten up migration to ease infrastructure strains and a politically sensitive housing crisis.
Labour’s policies were forecast to reduce net migration by up to 30,000 from record levels of more than 70,000 annually.
Lees-Galloway did not say how much the new rules were expected to reduce migration.
Official statistics showed that net migration had already slowed to 61,800 in October — its lowest in three years — and the New Zealand Treasury has said that tapering population growth could contribute to slightly slower economic expansion in the coming years.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Minister of Justice Andrew Little announced that a referendum to legalize recreational marijuana use is to be held during the 2020 general election.
The referendum was among the promises made by the Labour Party in last year’s agreement that led to a coalition government with the Green and New Zealand First parties.
“The Cabinet decision is that it [the referendum] will be held at the 2020 general election, the agreement is that it will be binding,” Little told reporters.
A “yes” vote would make New Zealand the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to allow recreational use of marijuana.
Thailand is set to become the first Asian country to legalize medical marijuana, but a battle is brewing between local and foreign firms over control of the market.
Australia has introduced laws freeing up access to cannabis for medicinal use, but it does not allow recreational use.
New Zealand lawmakers last week passed a bill to legalize medicinal cannabis that also provided a legal defense for terminally ill patients who use illicit products.
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