Nurses, midwives and specialist doctors have been added to the straight-to-residence list. Photo / 123RF
Nurses, midwives and specialist doctors have been added to the straight-to-residence list. Photo / 123RF
Expansions to the Government’s immigration Green List will help multiple industries in Whanganui by bringing more doers and makers to the region.
From December 15 nurses, midwives and specialist doctors have been added to the straight-to-residence tier of the list.
When the list was initially rolled out, the Government facedcriticism for not including nurses on the straight-to-residence tier alongside doctors.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Whanganui delegate Carmel Scott said in retrospect, it would have helped for nurses to be added earlier as Whanganui was experiencing a shortage, but this move was a step in the right direction.
Whanganui nurse and NZNO union member Carmel Scott. Photo / Bevan Conley
“Having another option available for recruiting staff to Whanganui is a positive step.”
Whanganui Regional Health Network (WHRN) chief executive Judith Macdonald said they were delighted with the expansions because it would make it much easier to bring in medical personnel from overseas to work in their clinics.
She said the entire health system in Whanganui was struggling for staff and, while it would have been helpful if these additions were included initially, it was better late than never.
“I know that the hospital is struggling for junior doctors... we have one of the higher percentages of general practitioners that are in the retiring age, so we’ve got quite a few vacancies, and it’s affecting access for people.”
Whanganui Regional Health Network chief executive Judith Macdonald.
She said the shortage had impacted people’s access to care, which meant more people ended up very unwell and at the hospital, exacerbating the staffing pressures.
Having more workers in the system would help in preventing the worst from happening.
“If you’ve got the workforce in the right holes, in the right spaces, delivering the right care early enough, then we should have a better focus on getting people seen quickly, getting them a management care plan and keeping them well,” she said.
The changes were an “everyone wins” scenario, as they gave professionals more of an incentive to stay in the region for longer.
“It means that if we have them for longer, they settle into our communities,” Macdonald said.
“If they have the opportunity to get residency, then they’re really committing themselves long-term to our communities, and that’s got to be the best outcome.”
From March, the work-to-residence pathway will also be expanded to include civil construction supervisors, gasfitters, drain layers, halal slaughterers, secondary and primary school teachers, as well as skilled crane operators, civil machine operators, motor mechanics and telecommunications technicians.
Whanganui lawyer Peter Robinson, who has worked in immigration for more than 30 years, said the additions to the pathway would help Whanganui employers outside the medical fields.
“It’s not just the Green List with the nurses and things, it’s also the pathway to residence - it’s been offered to the people we’re really short of in the provinces, the people who actually do things and make things,” he said.
Whanganui lawyer Peter Robinson. Photo / Bevan Conley
However, while the new expansions would help bring workers in to Whanganui in some industries, such as nursing home care and construction, other sectors may still have issues.
“There are still some gaps; hospitality is difficult, chefs and things are still difficult, so our cafés and restaurants and other accommodation businesses are still going to struggle.”
Robinson said the expansions would likely add more to a backlog of cases Immigration New Zealand was already struggling with due to its own staffing issues and problems with a new computer system.
“Hopefully there won’t be too much red tape involved in getting people like crane operators and drain layers through the immigration system,” he said.
He expected more occupations and positions to be added to the pathways, and said further changes may happen sooner due to the pressures of the approaching general election.
“I am expecting that there will be further things happening before six months, because to a certain extent these are band-aids, but it’s not yet part of a coherent policy which I can discern,” he said.
For the next round of reviews, Robinson wanted to see more attention paid to working-class roles rather than people earning high incomes.
“I would like to see a lot more attention [given] to the people who are paid what I would call ordinary incomes, rather than $75,000 to 150,000 a year, who do the physical work that you can’t replace [with] computers.”
