---
title: "PF055 · Captured AI answers"
publisher: "Onsomble Limited"
publication: "NZBrands.ai"
edition: 1
collected_on: "2026-10-05"
html_url: "https://nzbrands.ai/research/nz-election-2026/editions/1/questions/44b3abe3-7f32-4dd4-8275-9428d384c709/"
---

# PF055 · Captured AI answers

Edition 1 · answers collected 5 October 2026.

[Read on NZBrands.ai](https://nzbrands.ai/research/nz-election-2026/editions/1/questions/44b3abe3-7f32-4dd4-8275-9428d384c709/)

## Question

I run a café with a small team. Food and power costs are squeezing margins, customers are spending less, and we've experienced a break-in. I am considering my vote in the 2026 New Zealand general election. How do parties compare on immigration settings for hospitality workers?

Question ID: 44b3abe3-7f32-4dd4-8275-9428d384c709. Report reference: PF055.

Issue: Immigration. Voter: Café owner with a small team.

[Source record (JSON)](https://nzbrands.ai/data/nz-election-2026/editions/1/answers/44b3abe3-7f32-4dd4-8275-9428d384c709.json)

## How to read this evidence

The answers below are shown as the assistants gave them, not a verified account or NZBrands.ai voting advice. They may contain errors or outdated claims. A recorded source association is not necessarily a link shown to the reader.

Captured 5 October 2026. 4 answers were saved for this question. Missing answers have not been filled in.

[Study methodology and limitations](https://nzbrands.ai/research/nz-election-2026/editions/1/method.md)

## ChatGPT · asked nationally

Answer ID: af2ef905-1f9f-4b2d-ba99-fe280bf54082. Captured 5 October 2026.

**Begin captured answer — shown as given, not verified**

For a café, the key distinction is whether a party wants **easier access to overseas hospitality labour**, or tighter controls on temporary migrant workers. As of **4 October 2026**, the major parties differ quite substantially.

| Party | Immigration approach relevant to hospitality | What it could mean for a café |
|---|---|---|
| **National** | Retains an employer-sponsored system but is tightening requirements in some areas. Since June 2026, English requirements have been extended to AEWV skill-level 3 roles. National has also introduced new skilled residence pathways for experienced workers. [English language requirement extended to AEWV skill level 3 roles | National Party](https://www.national.org.nz/news/20260525-honericastanford-level3?utm_source=chatgpt.com) | **More access to skilled migrant labour, but with more compliance requirements.** The effect on cafés depends heavily on which occupations your workers fall into. |
| **Labour** | Wants immigration planned around workforce, housing and infrastructure capacity. It would strengthen the AEWV while allowing migrants to move between accredited employers after three months, and would put more emphasis on migrant protection. [Release: Labour to ensure an immigration system that works for New Zealand](https://www.labour.org.nz/news/release-labour-to-ensure-an-immigration-system-that-works-for-new-zealand/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) | **More worker mobility and protections**, potentially making recruitment/retention easier for some businesses, but Labour also proposes tighter overall planning and a longer path to permanent residence. |
| **ACT** | Wants each AEWV skill category to automatically expire annually unless there is current evidence of demand. It would extend basic English requirements to **all** AEWVs and add a $6/day infrastructure charge to temporary work visas. [ACT New Zealand](https://www.act.org.nz/news/making-immigration-work-for-new-zealand?utm_source=chatgpt.com) | **A more explicitly demand-driven system**, but potentially higher costs and more uncertainty if café occupations aren't continually demonstrated to be in shortage. |
| **Green** | Favors a more migrant-friendly system, including fairer pathways to settlement and stronger protections against exploitation. Its 2026 manifesto describes migrant workers as entitled to fair treatment and pathways to make Aotearoa home. [Manifesto 2026 - Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand](https://www.greens.org.nz/manifesto_2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com) | **Greater worker protections and potentially easier long-term settlement**, rather than using immigration primarily as a short-term labour supply mechanism. |
| **NZ First** | Proposes **substantially reducing non-essential immigration**, with a 20,000 annual resident-visa cap subject to a referendum, longer residence/citizenship qualifying periods and a 10-year welfare stand-down for non-citizens. [NZ First Announces Immigration Reform Policies - New Zealand First](https://www.nzfirst.nz/nz_first_announces_immigration_reform_policies?utm_source=chatgpt.com) | **A significantly tighter overall immigration environment**, which could make overseas recruitment and retaining migrant staff more difficult over time. |

### The current system matters too

Regardless of which party you consider, the starting point in 2026 is the **Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV)**. It permits migrants to work for an accredited employer, generally requires at least 30 hours a week, and can last up to five years depending on the job. [Accredited Employer Work Visa » Immigration New Zealand](https://www.immigration.govt.nz/visas/accredited-employer-work-visa/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

There have already been significant changes affecting lower- and mid-skilled hospitality jobs. English requirements apply to skill levels 4–5, and since **1 June 2026** they also apply to skill level 3. The Government says the baseline is IELTS 4.0 or equivalent. [English language requirement extended to AEWV skill level 3 roles | National Party](https://www.national.org.nz/news/20260525-honericastanford-level3?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

The Government has also moved away from the old sector-specific wage exemptions: the tourism and hospitality wage exemption that existed before March 2025 ended, although some workers retain exemptions from particular skill requirements. [Sector agreements and wage exemptions for AEWV workers :: Immigration New Zealand](https://www.immigration.govt.nz/work/requirements-for-work-visas/wage-rates-for-work-visas/sector-agreements-and-wage-exemptions-for-aewv-workers/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

### For your particular situation

If your main immigration question is **“How easy will it be for me to recruit a chef, cook, supervisor or other café worker from overseas?”**, I'd pay particular attention to three things rather than simply looking at each party's headline migration numbers:

1. **Whether the occupation remains eligible for an AEWV** and what skill level it is classified at. The occupation lists are being transitioned from ANZSCO to the National Occupation List, with further occupations added in March 2026. [National Occupation List occupations used for an AEWV :: Immigration New Zealand](https://www.immigration.govt.nz/work/requirements-for-work-visas/green-list-occupations-qualifications-and-skills/national-occupation-list-occupations-used-for-an-aewv/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
2. **Whether the party would impose additional English, wage, accreditation or labour-market-testing requirements.**
3. **Whether migrant employees can change employers easily.** This is particularly important for a small café: Labour's proposed three-month mobility rule is quite different from a system tightly binding a worker to one employer. [Release: Labour to ensure an immigration system that works for New Zealand](https://www.labour.org.nz/news/release-labour-to-ensure-an-immigration-system-that-works-for-new-zealand/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

One other relevant point for your business: National has previously explicitly identified **tourism and hospitality worker shortages** as a problem and proposed measures such as raising the Working Holiday Visa upper age from 30 to 35. [Boosting Tourism Authorised by J de Joux, 41 Pipit](https://assets.national.org.nz/Plan_Boosting_Tourism.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

So, rather than treating this as a simple left/right immigration question, you could frame it as: **which party's proposed labour-migration system best matches the staffing model of your café—short-term overseas recruitment, experienced skilled staff, or longer-term migrant retention?** That distinction produces quite different comparisons between the parties.

**End captured answer**

## Gemini · asked nationally

Answer ID: e088434f-f35f-41ec-9493-beabb27bf09f. Captured 5 October 2026.

**Begin captured answer — shown as given, not verified**

Running a café under the current economic conditions—balancing squeezed margins from food and power, a dip in consumer spending, and the stress of a break-in—is an immense challenge. Finding reliable staff when workforce costs and settings are tight is often a critical piece of that puzzle. 

Ahead of the **2026 New Zealand general election**, political parties differ significantly on their immigration philosophies and how they view migrant labor for sectors like hospitality. 

---

### Industry Context: What Hospitality NZ is Asking For
The sector peak body, Hospitality New Zealand, released its 2026 Election Manifesto, highlighting **immigration settings that support the hospitality workforce** as a top priority. They have been advocating for settings that recognize ongoing domestic skill shortages and provide practical pathways for filling operational roles. 

How the major political blocs approach this varies sharply:

### 1. The Incumbent Right-Centre Parties (National, ACT)
* **National:** As the lead party in the current coalition government, National has taken a measured approach to immigration, balancing business demands for skills against infrastructure and economic capacity. While they have implemented tighter controls across various visa categories compared to previous years to manage population growth, they generally lean into supporting employer-driven work visas where documented skill shortages exist, though they emphasize standard compliance and preventing migrant exploitation.
* **ACT:** ACT generally supports business access to global talent and market-led immigration, but their broader 2026 policy framework focuses heavily on tighter structural controls for permanent residency and citizenship pathways (such as proposing changes to residency timeframes and requirements). Their general philosophy favors economic flexibility, though they balance this with strict criteria for welfare and state support access.

### 2. The Opposition Centre-Left (Labour)
* **Labour:** Historically, Labour has taken a more managed and regulated approach to lower-skilled work categories, prioritizing training and lifting wages for domestic workers to fill shortages. However, they generally position themselves as maintaining balanced, pro-immigration settings that avoid drastic restrictions while ensuring public confidence. They emphasize strong protections against migrant exploitation and working collaboratively with industries, though they are traditionally less accommodating to broad, low-barrier work visa schemes for entry-level roles than business lobbies prefer.

### 3. Minor Parties (New Zealand First, Greens, Te Pāti Māori)
* **New Zealand First:** NZ First campaigns heavily on significantly reducing "non-essential immigration" and tightening control over work rights. Their policy platform includes a much stricter stance on temporary work visas, proposing that international students and lower-skilled temporary migrants should not displace local workers, and placing tighter caps on overall permanent/resident numbers. They explicitly view immigration as a strict privilege rather than a right.
* **Green Party & Te Pāti Māori:** These parties generally view immigration through a lens of human rights, family reunification, and humanitarian or climate-displacement needs, rather than primarily as an economic valve for hospitality labor supply. They are less focused on supplying low-cost labor to businesses and more focused on migrant welfare, resident rights, and social infrastructure.

---

### Summary for a Café Owner
If your primary vote-influencing concern is **securing accessible and flexible immigration settings to ease staffing pressures** in your kitchen or front-of-house:
* **Right-of-centre and business-aligned parties** (National/ACT) are generally more receptive to employer-driven arguments about skill shortages, though they still enforce compliance and vetting.
* **Left-leaning and nationalist parties** (Labour, and particularly NZ First) lean toward tighter restrictions on non-essential or lower-skilled migration, prioritizing domestic training, higher wages, or strict caps on overall numbers. 

*Are you looking closely at other business-related election policies as well—such as compliance costs, security/crime measures, or local government rates—to help weigh your vote?*

**End captured answer**

## Google AI Mode · asked nationally

Answer ID: 21db6da4-38f5-4c52-bf88-7a4c885ee213. Captured 5 October 2026.

**Begin captured answer — shown as given, not verified**

Running a hospitality business under current economic pressures—margin squeezes from food and power, a softer consumer spend, and the stress of a security breach—is a massive juggling act. Workforce and immigration settings are a crucial piece of that puzzle, especially when trying to secure reliable staff.

Ahead of the **_2026 New Zealand general election_** , political parties are taking distinct approaches to immigration, balancing economic demand for labour against broader infrastructure and population pressures. Sector groups like Hospitality New Zealand have pushed for practical residency pathways and recognition of hands-on experience over strict formal qualifications, but the parties' stances vary widely:

 * * **New Zealand Labour Party:** Labour's 2026 immigration positioning frames settings around what local infrastructure, housing, and the domestic job market can sustainably support. Their recent announcements focus on structural adjustments (such as adjusting timeframes for permanent residence pathways and managing net migration flows) rather than loosening settings specifically for low-margin or entry-level service roles. They generally advocate for controlled, demand-matched numbers rather than wide sectoral exemptions. [www.livinginnz.co.nz]

 * **National Party (Current Incumbent Settings):** National has largely overseen an approach returning immigration to pre-pandemic compliance baselines via the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) system, emphasizing market-linked tests and median-wage rules. While National focuses heavily on tourism and economic growth enablers (such as trans-Tasman border innovations), they have not signaled broad deregulation or specific concessions to lower the bar on wage thresholds or residency criteria for general hospitality roles.

 * **ACT Party:** ACT champions a market-driven approach designed to reduce bureaucratic friction for employers. Their philosophy leans toward letting businesses source the labour they need by aligning skilled job lists closely with actual economic gaps. However, they also couple this with tighter controls on migrant access to welfare (such as barring new migrants from welfare access for their first five years) and reforming permanent residency frameworks.

 * **New Zealand First:** NZ First advocates for the most restrictive and interventionist package on immigration. Their 2026 policy platform includes proposals for a non-binding/binding referendum on an annual cap on resident visas (such as capping it at 20,000 per year), doubling qualifying periods for permanent residency and citizenship, and restricting various temporary work and welfare rights. Their focus is firmly on tightening overall numbers and prioritizing domestic workforce training over reliance on migrant labour.

 * **Green and Te Pāti Māori:** Generally approach immigration from a humanitarian and equitable lens, focusing on pathways for existing undocumented migrants or family reunification, rather than tailoring visa settings to ease labour supply or wage constraints for commercial business operators.

 *

Would you like to explore how these parties' policies align with your other major pressures—such as **crime/security support for small businesses** or **cost-of-living/SME tax relief**?

**End captured answer**

## Google AI Overviews · asked nationally

Answer ID: 5ddf6244-44c9-4180-8568-efd5b5c6bff7. Captured 5 October 2026.

**Begin captured answer — shown as given, not verified**

As a café owner operating under tight margins, staffing remains a critical lever for your business's financial viability. For the **November 7, 2026 New Zealand general election** , the major political parties have laid out distinct platforms regarding immigration.

While organizations like [Hospitality NZ](https://hospitality.org.nz/) are lobbying heavily for practical residency pathways that value industry experience over formal qualifications, political parties are sharply divided on how strictly to control the "labour tap".

Summary of Party Positions on Immigration Settings

Political Party| Primary Policy Stance on Immigration| Impact on Hospitality/SME Hiring
---|---|---
**National Party**| **Maintain stable settings** and target an annual cap of 45,000–50,000 migrants to balance skills shortages with infrastructure pressures.| Defends current pathways against heavy cuts, keeping avenues open for filling essential service vacancies.
**ACT New Zealand**| **Tighten restrictions** via a 5-year welfare stand-down for new residents, an overstayer enforcement unit, and an annual review of the skilled jobs list.| Aims to tie work visas strictly to verified economic gaps; opposes permanent residence visas in favor of provisional ones.
**New Zealand First**| **Substantial reduction** through smart, controlled caps, increased visa fees, and a potential referendum on a residence cap.| Focuses heavily on long-term domestic workforce planning, making it more restrictive to source low-to-mid-skilled international staff.
**Labour Party**| **Pro-immigration with structured conditions** , proposing to double the time required to achieve permanent residency.| Rejects drastic cuts or anti-migrant rhetoric, aiming to preserve stable international worker flows while building long-term local incentives.
**Green Party**| **Migrant-focused equity** that opposes restrictions and focus on improving worker rights, wages, and systemic tax adjustments.| Strongly opposes clamping down on immigration, arguing that business pressures stem from broader economic and wealth structures rather than migrant workers.

* * *

Detailed Breakdown by Party

National Party

Led by Christopher Luxon, **National** supports simplified processes for skilled migrants but wants to return to historical long-term averages of **45,000 to 50,000 arrivals annually** to protect infrastructure. While their recent sector-specific proposals focused on health and agriculture (e.g., removing median wage requirements for farm workers), their broader strategy relies on the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) scheme to address workforce shortages without flooding the market.

ACT New Zealand

**ACT** leader David Seymour has proposed a six-point shake-up to move away from using immigration as a "general-purpose labour tap". Their policy introduces a **five-year welfare bar** for new residents and a $6 daily infrastructure levy on temporary visas. For hospitality, their intent to look strictly at an annual "skilled jobs list" could restrict temporary visas for positions deemed lower-skilled, while making permanent residency harder to maintain.

New Zealand First

Winston Peters and **NZ First** are campaigning on the heaviest immigration curbs, promoting an "immigrants who we need, not who need us" approach. Proposals include doubling the time required for citizenship, **raising visa fees dramatically** , and establishing a referendum on a hard cap for residency. This platform strongly favors forcing businesses to look internally to the domestic workforce, which could increase your labor competition locally.

Labour Party

**Labour's** approach aims to maintain a pro-immigration stance to attract necessary economic talent while introducing safeguards. Their primary changes involve **doubling the time needed to gain permanent residency** and reviewing financial requirements for specific family visas. They oppose the strict cuts proposed by the right-hand parties, arguing that cutting off international labour hurts productivity.

Green Party

The **Greens** reject immigration cuts and anti-migrant rhetoric, pushing instead to fix underlying issues like low wages through domestic policy. They champion **migrant worker protections** and pathways to residency, opposing measures like ACT's welfare stand-downs because they believe it creates an uneven class of residents.

If you want to look at other ways parties are addressing small business strain, let me know if you would like to compare their policies on:

 * **Law & Order / Retail Crime** (to address your break-in)
 * **Energy sector reforms** (to address power costs)
 * **Minimum wage settings & tax relief** (to address margin squeeze)

**End captured answer**

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