Govt pivots to faster migration & tourism

National campaigned on a digital nomad visa capped at 250 applicants a year but has pivoted to allow an uncapped number people to stay working remotely for up to nine months. Photo: Getty Images

Long stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday January 28 are:

1. The Government has immediately granted digital nomad work rights to all tourists and vistors for nine months in an attempt to restart growth in retail and hospitality spending, GST and income tax receipts;

2. Erica Stanford and Louise Upston aren’t worried about the effects of increased demand for rental accommodation and have brushed aside Queenstown’s fears about over-crowding already stressed infrastructure there;

3. Ministers are hoping many of those trying out living in New Zealand will hook up with locals to become permanent migrants, with an easing in temporary worker rules in December also aiming to fire up population-driven GDP growth;

4. The pivot to pushing for short-term increases in temporary workers and low-cost tour groups from China came after landlords have expressed increasing concern in recent months that population growth from net migration was falling;

5. Job advertisements fell again in December, emphasising the drive for more temporary migrant workers is going on as demand for workers remains stagnant;

6. Nicola Willis says Treasury is reviewing whether to privatise more state assets, with Quoteable Value appearing to be first on the block after David Seymour called for more asset sales over the weekend, including that of QV.

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the Dawn Chorus podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes from paying subscribers we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing)

1. Govt ‘going for growth’ with digital nomad work rights