https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122...e-during-covid
I'm sorry but when squash will sit rotting in the fields rather than going to Japan, cherries shrivel on the trees at Christmas and our pipfruit exports are severely impacted by a lack of volume for key markets and next year's vintages struggle to get picked - then David Parker will regret his hardass approach to labour shortages.
It's unfathomable that we can't bring in seasonal workers from the Cook Islands, Samoa and other COVID free Pacific Islands to assist with remittances to their economies ravaged by tourism devastation and ensure that primary produce is picked, sorted and packed. David Parker is deluded if he thinks that the unemployed kiwis are going to travel to the BoP, Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Otago and slog away picking fruit - it won't happen.
I guess there won't be many strawberries on the Pav at Christmas either.