12 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>October</strong>/<strong>November</strong> <strong>2020</strong> Seat belts on - the immigration landscape is changing Quite rightly the Government’s immigration focus over the past seven months has been on “border control” and with the myriad of challenges this has delivered, particularly in regard to who is able to cross the border and why. During this period Immigration policy settings changed frequently, and sometimes several times a week, in response to what this dynamic situation demanded. Now that we have more visibility regarding COVID and border management, and a Government with a clear 3 year mandate, what can employers expect in the immigration space moving forward? Firstly, COVID has presented a unique opportunity for an “across-the-board” immigration reset. New visa applications from offshore have largely been suspended, as has (effectively) the main skilled migrant residence category, and many existing visa holders have not been able to re-enter New Zealand. Large numbers of temporary visa holders have left New Zealand and returned to their home counties. As a consequence we now have a situation where the Government is much more “in control” of the immigration space and, with ongoing border restrictions being the norm for the foreseeable future, the Government can take its time to formulate a range of new policy settings which it considers will best “strike the right balance to support our recovery, fairness and opportunity”. We expect this to translate to higher thresholds for the skilled migrant, work-to-residence and partnership residence categories sometime in the next 6 months. We do know is that work has continued on the work visa changes the Government signalled over a year ago. These changes will see all the employer-assisted work visa categories rolled up into one visa category and will require every employer who is employing such migrant workers to be formally accredited with Immigration New Zealand. To gain such accreditation a business must (among other things) be in a sound financial position, have compliant workplace practices and be prepared to assist and support their migrant workers to settle into the community. Employers who employ 5 or more migrant workers are required to have a higher level of accreditation which will additionally require them to commit to improving work pay and conditions and to training and upskilling New Zealanders. These changes, which are expected to be introduced mid- 2021, will markedly change the work visa landscape and Richard Howard require all employers to take much greater responsibility for all aspects of their migrant workforce, including management of the visa process. New Zealand was already facing a skills shortage when COVID hit and this situation has not gone away. Many of our client companies are desperately short of the skills they need to grow their businesses and to respond to current demand, and while we are able to get some workers across the border the threshold is currently set very high. This “ balancing act” of what visa holders take priority over others, given the available quarantine capacity, will be employers main challenge for some time. The only certainty is change, and we have experienced plenty of change in the immigration space in <strong>2020</strong> – and 2021 will be no different! Tania Witheford, David McKenzie, Karen May and Shirley Haycock Cambridge property market booming Cambridge’s popularity as a place to live and invest has scarcely been dented by Covid-19, and the property market is booming post-lockdown. That was the message given to the audience at a Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Leaders Lunch held at Henley Hotel on 29 September. Cambridge Real Estate has seen numbers rise in the town’s residential market since the lockdown, both in number of sales and average prices, while properties are selling quickly, said residential property consultant Greg Price. Price said some of that came down to the appeal of Cambridge as a place to own, while it was also affected by “bricks and mortar” being seen as a safe place to invest money. Lime Group managing director Phil Caldwell said they had similarly been seeing an upsurge in business post-lockdown. He was critical of the risk-averse approach of the four main banks given the low-interest regime, which is set to stay for the next two to three years. That conservatism is making it more difficult particularly for younger people to raise mortgages, he said, and comes despite the government’s moves to free up liquidity. Like the other presenters, Antanas Procuta, principal architect of PAUA Architects, has seen a surprisingly buoyant market in the past two or three months. He said during lockdown he soaked up as much as he could from the experts, including economists and health specialists, and is applying that to the firm’s response. “When Covid-19 happened I was determined that we weren’t going to lay anyone off. Keeping the hope going, that was really important,” he said. When it comes to planning, he said he is looking 18 to 24 months ahead. He also stressed the importance of marketing. “If you take your eye off marketing, your business suffers.” But in the last two months, he said things have changed remarkably. “I think people have been saying ‘if we do nothing, nothing’s going to happen’ so we’ve seen a lot of activation, a lot of people have been coming to us saying ‘right, we want to be doing these things’.” He also told the audience that Cambridge Chamber chair Phil Mackay, who has a background in hospitality, was to join PAUA Architects as business development manager. “We’re very delighted and proud to have Phil joining us after Labour Weekend.” The event concluded with a presentation to Procuta, marking his 25 year involvement with the Chamber. Nadia Haua, Steffan Haua, Phil Mackay and LesleyAnn Thomas Level 2 586 Victoria Street Hamilton 3204 Level 3 50 Manners Street Wellington 6011 07 834 9222 enquiries@pathwaysnz.com pathwaysnz.com David Natzke, Mark Morgan and Peter Nation
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>October</strong>/<strong>November</strong> <strong>2020</strong> 13 MIKE STENT DECORATORS LTD Master Painter of the Year <strong>2020</strong> New Commercial Interior Large Residential Winners Winning project: Wool Shed/Community Center, Te Awa Lifecare Village, 1866 Cambridge Rd, Cambridge, 3434 Mike Stent REGISTERED MASTER PAINTER 027 290 4484 Matt Stent MANAGER 022 106 6166
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