The minister of immigration Micheal Woodhouse has told Television New Zealand report Rachel Smallie that the government was satisfied that truck drivers did not need to remain on the immediate skills shortage list.
During an interview regarding the issue of capping of migrant numbers on last Sunday’s Q&A programme, Smallie asked Woodhouse why truck drivers had been removed as a skills shortage job from NZ immigration policy:
The transcript follows as thus:
Smallie: Okay have we got the skills mix right do you think? Are we ensuring that immigrants are meeting the jobs market here? And I raise this issue because for example at the moment we’ve got a shortage of class 5 heavy duty truck drivers, and that’s significant you know when you see what’s going on in Christchurch, yet we’ve removed that as a skills shortage job from our immigration policy. Why did we do that?
Woodhouse: Well we were satisfied that the industry didn’t need the skills to remain on the list and there were a number of efforts underway to make sure that New Zealanders were being trained up to class 4 and 5 licenses. But I should also add…
Smallie: But industry says now though that there is a shortage.
Woodhouse: Yeah, well I should add, but it’s still possible for them to have labour market tested work visas issued. They’re still on the Canterbury skill shortage list, so they come in for Canterbury and help the Christchurch rebuild, and others around the country can still get those workers in, but they need to make sure that there are not New Zealanders available to do the jobs in the area.
