Solution to worker shortages creates problem for others
Our biggest exporter of apples needs 2,000 seasonal workers by November. Yesterday, the Sāmoan government announced that flights bringing RSE workers here will be restricted to one per month.
In today’s edition: New Zealand may yet expel Russian ambassador; students strike for climate today; the three horsemen of our housing apocalypse; but first, Sāmoa limits RSE worker intake for New Zealand.
(Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades)
One flight per month for New Zealand and Australia
In an announcement yesterday, which included the news that all Covid restrictions for international travellers would be lifted, Sāmoa’s deputy prime minister Tuala Tevaga Ponifasio reiterated concerns about the RSE worker scheme. He noted the increasing number of companies wanting to hire seasonal workers from Sāmoa and then announced that only one intake of RSE workers will fly to New Zealand and one to Australia per month. Sāmoa halted sending more seasonal workers overseas in June. Within the “one flight” announcement from the Sāmoan government is an expression of concern about conditions for RSE workers overseas and worry about its domestic situation.
Labour shortages exist in Sāmoa too
The reason given by the government was to ensure that there was no drain of labour taken from Sāmoa, “of people who would take care of families and work the land”. This issue cuts across a few areas, both for Sāmoa and New Zealand. Yesterday, the Sāmoa Observer ran an editorial headlined “A slice of paradise? So why are our people leaving their paradise?” Its stance was labelled “between a rock and hard place”, acknowledging that prospects are better overseas but that the exodus of local workers is a serious concern for local employers. Comments on the Observer’s Facebook page weren’t very sympathetic towards the government.
Sāmoa has already lost 11,000 workers abroad to the seasonal worker scheme
Its government has flagged the potential of losing 2,500 more (paywalled) this week. The Observer reports that New Zealand’s biggest packer and exporter of apples, Mr Apples, has a delegation in the country looking to hire an additional 2,000 seasonal workers by November this year. Asparagus growers here are banking on RSE workers to get asparagus picked. New accommodation for RSE workers in Katikati is planned. RSE workers represent one of the solutions to our current labour labour crisis but at whose expense?
RSE workers here being exploited, bonded to unreasonable debt and living in poor conditions
New Zealand actually increased its quota of RSE workers in February to 16,000 and did so despite a review of the scheme not getting underway until early next year. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Karanina Sumeo said some RSE workers brought here from Pacific nations were being exploited, bonded to unreasonable debt and living in very poor conditions. Kirsty Johnston covered this in her piece this week on modern slavery. Pay might be better here. Pay sent home props up a chunk of the Sāmoan economy. But with exploitation concerns and the Sāmoan government worried about our labour crisis deepening its labour crisis, you have to wonder how long we can justify the darker side of our reliance on this source of labour. This “as told to Madeleine Chapman” from the wife of an RSE worker living here is worth your time.
The many intricacies of second-generation New Zealanders and drug use
There’s been a historic lack of research into how a big part of our population uses drugs, and the knowledge gap that’s been created could cause immeasurable damage. Four second-gen Asian-New Zealanders told The Spinoff their stories of using drugs, why some cultural stigmas around drugs can be hard to shake and how they have coped with such attitudes in their whānau and social groups. Read their stories here, and to get trusted information about safe use and advice on all things drugs, visit The Level.
Government will again consider expelling the Russian ambassador
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta says the government will again consider expelling the Russian ambassador. Mahuta has had quite the week after the Public Services Commission agreed to her request for an investigation into claims around the handling of contracts awarded to her husband Gannin Ormsby. Mahuta was also the chief negotiator for Ngāti Maniapoto for a short stint before Labour came into government. The King Country iwi secured an apology and $177m redress from Crown yesterday. The foreign minister’s comments about the Russian ambassador come after Russia expanded its war effort against Ukraine. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, walked out of a UN security council meeting this morning. This account of the first day of draft notices being handed out in Russian towns and cities is pretty sobering.
School strikes for climate are back
After a year and half, climate strikes are back. They start today in New Zealand and will be held all over the world. The movement here has refocused since the last strikes after reckoning with calls that it had “avoided, ignored, and tokenised the voices of Pasifika and Māori individuals in the climate activism space.” The group is calling on the government to think in terms of people-not-profit and industry regulation, and wants to support the people that climate change will impact the most. This week business leaders and politicians have also been discussing climate change, indoors at a conference in Auckland. Ngāti Toa’s Anahera Nin said climate change was already hurting Māori, with marae often located in flood-prone areas and called for “less hui and more do-ee.” Students will take to the streets in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and New Plymouth.
The three horsemen of our housing apocalypse
It's evident to those living in Aotearoa that doing so does not come cheap, but did you know our housing and rental affordability is the worst in the world? Treasury Chief Economist Dominick Stephens went hunting with a team of Government experts for the reasons why. Revealing the three key factors driving our housing market, Stephens deep dives into conversation with Bernard Hickey on the latest episode of When the Facts Change on how the combination of lower interest rates, land use restrictions and our tax system has caused such an explosion.
Click and collect
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Schools welcome increase in funding under NZ's new equity index system.
Public Service Announcement: daylight savings starts this Sunday.
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It’s Friday so…
Remember Space Force? The very real military unit Donald Trump established and said was his idea but actually dates back to the 90s? The one that high-ranking military officers now say endured ridicule after it was launched, in part because Trump launched it? Space Force released its official song this week and I am afraid to report, according to a legitimately serious news website dedicated to reporting on the US military, “it is not a banger”. To make matters a bit worse, they’ve also released a very earnest behind the scenes video of the making of the song. I feel for the poor man who wrote it but it does sound like something you’d write for a parody TV series about a Space Force. The song kicks in at about 1:45 in the video. To infinity and beyond.
