Faced with skills shortages and a drain of talent to Australia, New Zealand will fling open the gates to skilled foreign workers.

The government has announced a spate of new residency pathways for key professions including nurses.

The tweaks improve NZ’s offering in the white-hot global war for skilled migration, a move Immigration Minister Michael Wood conceded was sorely needed.

“We understand that labour shortages are the biggest issue facing New Zealand businesses and are contributing to cost of living pressures too,” he said on Monday.

“We need to put the foot down and that’s what we’re doing.”

Promise of residency

While Australia has announced an increase in permanent migration visas to 195,000 places this year, NZ has not given a cap or target.

Instead, it will hand residency or a promise of residency after two years work to workers in nearly 100 professions.

The fast-track residency “green list” of professions is split into two tiers, with some offered immediate residency visas, and other needing to work in NZ for two years.

Monday’s changes see key health professionals including nurses, doctors and midwives placed on tier one, meaning they can apply for residency visas immediately.

Medical professionals sought

The opposition has called for nurses to go on the green list for more than a year, with spokeswoman Erica Stanford calling the delay “madness”.

“Not a single health organisation supported the government’s policy which put New Zealand at a huge disadvantage compared with countries like Australia that offer migrant nurses residence immediately,” she said.

“After months of dithering, it is a relief that the government has finally realised its mistake.”

Dozens of professions are already on tier one, including engineering roles, GPs, vets and many medical specialties.

Growing numbers of Kiwis crossing Tasman

The government has also added ten professions to the second tier, including teachers, motor mechanics, halal slaughterers and drain layers.

In addition to those changes, bus and truck drivers have been offered a separate sector-specific residence pathway.

The immigration changes come as a growing number of New Zealanders depart for Australia.

Stats NZ figures show a net 7500 Kiwis moved to Australia in the year to March 2022, more than double the pre-pandemic average over the last decade.

Mr Wood said he was confident NZ would be able to attract migrants despite offering lower wages and more expensive housing than Australia.

“We’ve got a really unique proposition for people. This is one of the most stable peaceful, beautiful countries in the world,” he said.

NZ is in dire need of more workers, with around 94,000 positions advertised for international recruitment.

With a jobless rate of just 3.3 per cent, the Reserve Bank believes it is above maximum sustainable employment and immigration bottlenecks are fuelling inflation.

-AAP