Waikato Business News August/September 2020

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6 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2020 Firms frustrated as migrant workers stuck in limbo By RICHARD WALKER Frustrated Waikato business owners say opportunities are slipping away and staff are under huge emotional strain because of Immigration New Zealand’s opaque communication and slow response to applications. They say rules keep changing and appear unfriendly to small businesses, which face a compliance burden every time they support a worker for a visa or residence application. Rocketspark co-founder Jeremy Johnson complained to Immigration NZ after a key staffer had her application for residency stalled in the bureaucracy for 17 months - after which time she is yet to be assigned a case manager. Meanwhile, Automatic Door Services director Andy Marsden has gone around the agencies in a desperate attempt to get an exemption for a skilled staff member stuck in India during Covid-19 restrictions. Cambridge-based immigration adviser Matthew Gibbons says residence applications, apart from a very small category of people, are taking about 18 months or more to get a case officer allocated. “That is a significant increase from what we were seeing a couple of years ago. So it is causing a lot of distress for people.” Gibbons is on an industry steering group formed during Covid-19 by key players in the area - the Auckland District and New Zealand law societies, the NZ Association for Migration and Investment, and the NZ Association for Immigration Professionals. The group is pushing on several fronts, including Andy Marsden seeking greater clarity around the exception pathway and lobbying to see processing times come down. They have also met with new Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi about the stress, anxiety and depression faced by some migrants. “We want to try and get some communications from Government and from Immigration New Zealand to migrants to at least give them some signposting, some clarity as to what is or is not going to be happening any time soon.” Faafoi appeared receptive, Gibbons says. Covid-19 is making the situation worse, but Rocketspark director Grant Johnson points out customer marketing manager Fei Guo’s problems began well before the pandemic. Jeremy Johnson and Fei Guo The Cambridge-based software firm was confident she cleared the threshold to be given residency when they started the process two years ago, with the expectation of a decision within six months, based on information on Immigration NZ’s website. She had flourished at the web-building firm, after joining three years ago, and had been promoted to her current position managing a team of five. The founders say people with her skill set are difficult to attract to Cambridge, and point out her performance in the role has enabled the hiring of further New Zealand residents. She has made Cambridge home, following a short stint in Auckland after she gained a Masters in Management Studies majoring in marketing at Waikato University. She is, Grant Johnson says, “a good citizen and a good team member”. However, with no certainty, she faces the possibility of returning to China. One small win after the firm pushed her case was the recent extension of her visa from January to April, in line with a general extension made by the government. Fei says the rules have changed while she has been waiting, with the introduction of a two-tier system that gives weight to high income earners. “They’ve got a non-priority queue and a priority queue now. As I understand it, they are processing the priority queue, and put the non-priority queue on hold,” Fei says. Gibbons backs her view. The only categories being processed more quickly are high income earners with salaries of $106,000 or more annually or occupations requiring occupational registration, he says. “Everything else is sitting in the queue.” Jeremy Johnson says the salaries being given preference are outside the reach of most small firms. “We’re a small business, helping small businesses and this is a major handbrake for us,” he says. “It doesn’t feel like a small-business friendly approach.” Gibbons frequently deals with people in Fei’s situation, and says they are usually successful in gaining a further temporary visa because, by definition, they are skilled migrants. “But it’s far from certain, and it’s causing a lot of anxiety and distress to people who have made plans for their long term future and find themselves in a very uncertain world whilst their residence [application] is just sitting in a queue.” And while the minister recently exercised new powers to issue a six-month extension for work visa holders, it did not apply to their family members, which Gibbons thinks was a mistake that will create more work for Immigration NZ as spouses and children apply for an extension. Marsden was able to renew one Automatic Door Services (ADS) staff member’s skilled migrant worker visa just before Covid-19 hit, but says the administrative load is daunting, time consuming and costly. Even worse for Marsden, another key worker, Harwinder Singh, is stranded in India, where he had returned home for a visit, with no indication of when he might be able to return. Marsden says local MP Louise Upston has given “fantastic” support, but he is unimpressed with the government agencies he has dealt with, which include Foreign Affairs and MBIE as well as Immigration NZ. “It all comes down regularly to lack of communication,” he says “Unless you are really fortunate and have the right people on your side there is no straight line of communication with anybody at Immigration NZ - there is a blank wall.” ADS won recognition from MBIE that part of its business was essential during Covid-19 level four lockdown, in recognition of its role making essential premises secure. “At this point I thought, home free, we’ve got it.” But he says when he forwarded the email to Immigration NZ in expectation of getting Singh back into New Zealand, he discovered MBIE’s acceptance made no difference. It all comes down regularly to lack of communication, unless you are really fortunate and have the right people on your side there is no straight line of communication with anybody at Immigration NZ - there is a blank wall. Marsden says Singh, who he describes as his “righthand man”, was expecting to submit his application for residency in September, and his skilled migrant work visa comes up for renewal in January. “So we’re in a bit of a worried position now, given the timeframes that we’re seeing.” Marsden says when Singh phoned Immigration NZ, he was told they could find nothing in relation to his exemption application. Marsden has even offered to pay for quarantine. “Imagine how isolating it is overseas. Everything you have has been moved to New Zealand, it’s in a house in New Zealand, you don’t even know when you can go back to that country to go and get it, let alone go back and start your life again.” Gibbons says in his experience the problem is lack of action, rather than a failure of communication. “Generally speaking if I contact Immigration New Zealand, I get a response from them but not necessarily the response I want. If I make a request for a case to be escalated so it gets processed I nearly always get a decline. Immigration introduced a system to escalate cases and it is granted only in very rare circumstances in my experience.” As for the delays, he thinks both rising demand and an Immigration NZ decision to close offshore branches are contributing factors but not the whole reason. Cambridge Chamber of Commerce chief executive Kelly Bouzaid describes the situation as a “mess”. She asks why some get approved while others don’t, after writing successfully in support of a local chef whose visa had expired. She says the first two approaches, before he was approved, involved the restaurant being told they could hire a Kiwi. “Actually here and now that’s not really the answer for business continuity in amongst a pandemic.” The toll on small firms such as ADS and Rocketspark, lacking the resources of large firms, is challenging, and is potentially holding back growth of jobs for New Zealanders as well as migrants. “When you believe you’re operating with complete integrity, and it’s the right person for the job and you’re growing the New Zealand economy, that’s when you start to get a bit testy,” Grant Johnson says. “We are pretty placid but we’re getting ticked off. “We’re pretty realistic in terms of it [Covid-19] is a one in 100 year event. But it wouldn’t be that hard to provide some clear guidance.” Gibbons: “I think throughout all of this, what we would love to see is a little bit more guidance, a little bit more signposting as to exactly what is or is not likely to happen. I do understand that these are extremely unusual times. But I do think there’s been quite a lot of time to try and work through these issues to get more policy, more planning as we move forward. And if that means giving people bad news, so be it, but at least let people know where they stand.”
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2020 7 Just do it. Or not? Every branding project is fraught with the eternal dilemma of whether or not to include a tagline. Is it necessary? Does it add value? Does it reflect who we are? TELLING YOUR STORY > BY VICKI JONES Vicki Jones is director of Dugmore Jones, Hamilton-based brand management consultancy. Email vicki@dugmorejones.co.nz My view has long been that a tagline is only necessary if it is memorable for the right reasons, if it makes your customers feel good about your brand. And I’m not talking about advertising slogans here, which may be integral to a brand for a long period but are campaign related and can evolve over time. I’m meaning the line that sits with your logo for a considerable time, or even forever. Sometimes a tagline may be needed to help explain or reinforce something you really want people to understand. After all, the words and logo of your branding can only do so much – and we shouldn’t have monumental expectations of what can be articulated in that small space, even if you include a visual element that helps tell the story. My feeling is that the best taglines are those that give you a sense of the brand’s character, or that show that it understands what I need from my relationship with them. Sitting at the lights at the junction of Mill and Victoria Streets, I’ve admired the signage for Safewise for years. It bears the tagline ‘where safety is no accident’. I’m afraid I know little about Safewise but it tells me enough to assume they do something about workplace safety, and the tagline assures me that they are thorough and to be trusted. Even if you don’t know what it means in English, you probably know who ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ belongs to. Even if you don’t love it, you’re undoubtedly familiar with ‘I’m lovin’ it’. And ‘Just do it’ has become so recognisable that they don’t even use the brand name a lot of the time. But those brands now have the advantage of visibility and scale that deep marketing pockets bring. Those of us with more modest budgets have to work smarter. There are a few tricks and tips that you can consider. Alliteration is often effective, as the sounds help make it memorable. Keeping it short is key – the three word rule often wins here. Leveraging a sentiment that you know is important to your audience is another approach. Speights beer championed ‘Pride of the South’, appealing to regional allegiance that, even if we weren’t from down south, we could relate to it from anywhere in New Zealand. L&P’s ‘World famous in New Zealand’ takes a similar approach. If your brand name is self-explanatory – something like a fictional Hillcrest Landscape Supplies – a tagline isn’t necessary to clarify what the business does. But if that business wants to express a particular focus or ethos, a tagline would help do that. For example, a tagline might be able to reinforce their commitment to sustainable products, or highlight personal service or client relationships. Pak n Save promises ‘New Zealand’s lowest food prices’, offering a reassurance of value and leaving little doubt about where they position themselves in the marketplace. Equally, brands can use their tagline to subtly reinforce a premium price position. There are also practical and visual factors to consider when developing a tagline. How does it look alongside your logo? A short logo and a long tagline – or vice versa – can be hard to work with. Your designer will need to consider how they work together across a range of applications – your vehicles, website, in small spaces, and more. Similarly, some words might seem right in terms of meaning but sound wrong when said out loud. If it’s all too hard, you’ll need to question if it’s worth it. Call me cynical but I struggle with claims of ‘best’ in a tagline, or words like ‘favourite’. Are you? Are you, really? Apart from the fact that Advertising Standards takes a dim view of false claims, I think this approach simply lacks imagination. Your business’s brand doesn’t necessarily need a tagline. But sometimes it’s worth undergoing an exercise to try and come up with something relevant for you, because a gem may well emerge quickly. But if it doesn’t, don’t sweat it, as it could evolve from your marketing discussions over time. We see too many fails – location branding seems to be a regularly guilty party – that teach us to be wary of getting it wrong. If you can come up with that gem which can proudly encapsulate your priority, well done. But if in doubt, leave it out. TRUST LAW IS CHANGING - Are you ready? Kiwis love trusts There are somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 family trusts in New Zealand, the highest number of trusts per capita in the world. Trusts are one of the most flexible asset ownership vehicles we have. While there may still be good reasons to have a trust, changes to Trust law may mean a trust is no longer relevant or required. know what the assets and debts of the Trust are, and fully understand what the Trust Deed says. The Act goes further than simply knowing about the Trust Deed and the Trustee role however, with greater expectations that trustees will keep accurate records, formally document decisions and hold regular trustee meetings. Implications for Beneficiaries The Trusts Act 2019 The new Trusts Act 2019 is the most significant change to trust law since the passing of the Trustee Act in 1956. The new Act was passed in July last year and comes into force in January 2021. A substantial number of New Zealanders are going to be affected by the new Act, particularly those who are a trustee and/or a beneficiary of a trust and those who provide advice about a trust. Implications for Trustees One of the aims of the new Act is to make trust law easier to understand. Many trustees in New Zealand do not fully understand their role and the obligations that go along with it. The new Act addresses this by imposing greater responsibilities on Trustees to understand their role, and the terms of the Trust Deed. It is important therefore that people acting as a Trustee have a copy of the Trust Deed, The new Act also introduces a presumption that beneficiaries of a trust will be provided with certain basic information about the trust, including being told that they are a beneficiary, who the trustees are, and being provided with a copy of the Trust Deed. The beneficiaries are also entitled to request other more detailed trust information, which could include among other things, financial statements, valuations of trust assets and trustee resolutions. In many Trust Deeds, the definition of “beneficiaries” is very wide – this could be problematic when the new Act carries with it a presumption that beneficiaries are entitled to a lot of information about the Trust and its assets. Where trustees intend to refuse to provide information to a beneficiary, it will be important that they seek legal advice. Otherwise, the beneficiary may bring a claim against the trustees which will include the cost of that beneficiary having to bring that claim to court. What next? In many cases, the more stringent rules and requirements under the new Act will require a careful consideration of whether it is still worthwhile to have the Trust in place. This is particularly the case where decisions of the Courts and changes to government policies have eroded many of the original reasons for setting up a Trust. In some cases having a Trust can be counterproductive to the reason for which the Trust was settled. For example, having the family home in a Trust may make it less likely that the settlers of that Trust qualify for residential care subsidies. As the new Act doesn’t come into force until January 2021, there is still time to get prepared and seek advice. Some of the things you will want to consider will be; do you still need your trust or should it be wound up? Does the class of beneficiaries include people you never intended to benefit from the trust? Does the trust deed need to be updated? And, what will be the best way to deal with a request for information by beneficiaries? If you have any questions about the new Act and what your options are, contact Shelley Greer at Gallie Miles. _ Hamilton/Te Awamutu/Otorohanga _ 0800 872 0560 E: office@gallie.co.nz www.gallie.co.nz We speak your language
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Waikato Business News August/September 2020

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