Staffing concerns put to National deputy

National’s new deputy leader Nicola Willis says Southland business concerns about staffing shortages have been heard loud and clear.

Willis visited Invercargill yesterday where she met with the ‘‘SuperBlues’’ National Party supporters group, a range of exporters, farmers, and business and community leaders.

It was her first visit outside of Wellington since being announced as the National Party’s new deputy leader on Tuesday.

The Invercargill visit was organised prior to her hectic week which saw her join leader Chris Luxon as the new face of the National Party.

Included in the feedback from Southland business owners and leaders was that they are struggling to find staff, Willis said.

‘‘It is really tough for them to get skilled staff and find people.’’

‘‘In the case of a business I talked to, he and his wife has grown it from four staff to 17 over a number of years. They are ready to expand and go to bigger premises, but before they do that they need to know they can take on the extra staff needed to make the operation work, and they just can’t find people.’’

Willis said it was not restricted to skilled workers, but businesses also struggled to fill low-skilled positions as well.

‘‘It’s a major lid on not just businesses, but our economy as a whole.’’

Willis believed there were ways the Government could help ease some of those staffing woes.

It included sorting out MIQ to help get more people into the country, as well as sorting immigration challenges.

‘‘It was also raised with me at lunch that we have low unemployment, yet we still have growing numbers of people taking jobseeker benefits,’’ Willis said.

‘‘So making sure that we are doing more to support people off the benefit into work makes sense as well.’’

Both Willis and Luxon hail from big city New Zealand, but Willis did not believe that meant they could not relate to what was happening in provincial New Zealand.

Willis felt she had a good understanding of the rural sector through her five years when she worked for New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra in various senior management positions.

‘‘I spent lots of time in gumboots down south with farmers. I really learned that most of the time farmers are good people trying to do their absolute best with the land to farm sustainability and profitably.

‘‘I saw first hand that just throwing Government regulation on them doesn’t make them do their job better, in fact, it can be worse.’’

She added people like Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds would be the ‘‘eyes and ears’’ in provincial areas to ensure they were aware of what was going on, on the ground.

‘‘Southland is real heartland New Zealand, in terms of where some of our best farmers are. We have huge amounts of agricultural production and that’s incredibly valuable. There are industries that support a huge amount of people in work.’’