David Seymour
Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
The ACT Party says their $6 per day tax on temporary visa holders would not apply to seasonal workers – after David Seymour floated the idea on Sunday.
ACT are campaigning on a daily “infrastructure surcharge” levied on anybody in New Zealand with a temporary work visa. RNZ Pacific asked on May 4th whether this would include those on the RSE scheme, to which they said no.
“It’s designed for standard work visas, not seasonal programmes.” a spokesperson said.
But last Sunday, Seymour told TNVZ’s QnA programme that he “would have thought” seasonal visa holders would be included.
“It’s basically 75 cents an hour,” Seymour said.
“If you’re making $28 an hour … and we made that $27.25, that’s still a pretty good deal if you’re coming from Samoa say for seven months.”
RNZ Pacific understands that Seymour misspoke.
For a typical seven-month RSE visa, a daily $6 charge would amount to around $1278. The minimum pay for an RSE worker on their third season is $26.35.
Citizens of Kiribati and Tuvalu are permitted to stay for up to 9 months – and so would pay around $1644.
The base application fee for the visa starts from $325, and critics of the scheme have pointed to travel and external support as added cost pressures for workers.
An ACT spokesperson reiterated that the tax will not be levied on RSE workers.
“ACT will be releasing detail on how our immigration policy will impact agriculture/horticulture in two weeks at Fieldays.”
