# Question 55: 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?

Collected 26 October 2026

[NZ Election 2026 · Edition 6 study](https://nzbrands.ai/research/nz-election-2026/editions/6)

## ChatGPT

Answer ID: 1f52f20c-918c-49b0-91b9-fbed70966d2e

# New Zealand 2026 election: immigration policies that matter to your café

For a café owner with a small team, the key question isn't simply which party wants more or fewer migrants. It's which party would make it easier to recruit reliable hospitality workers, retain experienced staff, and offer them a realistic long-term future in New Zealand — without adding unnecessary costs or paperwork to your business.

New Zealand's general election is scheduled for 7 November 2026. As of late October, parties have announced policies that differ on employer flexibility, skills shortages, visa enforcement and pathways to residence. These are campaign proposals, not all enacted law. [NZ Election 2026: Immigration Policy by Party](https://www.livinginnz.co.nz/blog/2026-election-immigration-policy/)[Immigration Update- September 2026](https://www.ammlaw.co.nz/immigration-update-september-2026)

## How the main parties compare

| Party | Approach to hospitality workers | What it could mean for your café |
| --- | --- | --- |
| National | Continues the current skilled-migration and employer-sponsored framework, with revised skilled-residence pathways. | Familiar framework for recruiting migrants, but residence eligibility depends on the role, pay and experience. [Immigration and visas: party comparison 2026](https://partymap.co.nz/compare/immigration/)[Key immigration changes](https://www.restaurantnz.co.nz/2026/05/27/key-immigration-changes-rolling-out-across-2026/) |
| Labour | Would allow migrant workers to change accredited employers after three months and plan immigration around workforce and infrastructure needs. | Potentially easier recruitment and worker mobility, although staff may also have more freedom to leave your café. [Immigration](https://www.labour.org.nz/immigration) |
| Green Party | Proposes more flexible work rights, including allowing migrant work-visa holders to switch employers, alongside stronger worker protections and settlement options. | Could make recruitment and retention more flexible, while strengthening expectations around fair pay and conditions. [Immigration Update- September 2026](https://www.ammlaw.co.nz/immigration-update-september-2026)[MEDIA RELEASE: Hospitality New Zealand releases 2026 Election Manifesto](https://hospitality.org.nz/advocacy-and-insights/media-release-hospitality-new-zealand-releases-2026-election-manifesto) |
| ACT | Wants annual reviews of skilled-work visa categories, stronger English-language requirements and a NZ$6-per-day infrastructure surcharge on temporary work visas. | Could preserve targeted migrant recruitment, but the surcharge and stricter eligibility settings may increase costs or narrow your candidate pool. [ACT New Zealand](https://www.act.org.nz/news/making_immigration_work_for_nz) |
| NZ First | Favours substantially lower immigration, tighter controls and longer residence and citizenship qualifying periods. It has previously preferred extending some work visas rather than providing new residence pathways. | A more restrictive approach could make long-term staffing and retaining migrant workers harder, depending on the roles covered by any eventual changes. [NZ First Announces Immigration Reform Policies](https://www.nzfirst.nz/nz_first_announces_immigration_reform_policies)[Immigration and visas: party comparison 2026](https://partymap.co.nz/compare/immigration/) |

These are the clearest contrasts in the published material I found. They are not a complete ranking of every party, and proposed policies could change through coalition negotiations.

## What matters specifically for a café

Three policy differences deserve particular attention.

1. Can you recruit the workers you actually need?

Café staffing often depends on cooks, kitchen hands, baristas and front-of-house staff. A party's general promise to support skilled migration doesn't necessarily mean every one of these jobs will qualify for a work visa or a residence pathway. Occupation classifications and pay thresholds matter.

2. Can experienced staff stay — and can they change employers?

Labour's three-month proposal and the Greens' more flexible approach are relevant if you're struggling to keep trained staff. National's existing framework is more focused on defined visa and residence eligibility, while NZ First favours tighter migration controls.

3. Will employing migrant workers become more expensive?

ACT's proposed infrastructure surcharge is a particularly concrete example: NZ$6 per day equates to about NZ$2,190 per worker per year, before any other visa or employment costs. This is a proposed additional charge, not a cost you should assume applies under current rules.

The current rules also matter independently of the election. From 1 June 2026, English-language requirements were extended to Accredited Employer Work Visa applicants in skill-level 3 roles, including some hospitality jobs. Changes to skilled residence pathways also took effect in August 2026. [New Zealand tightens English standards, widens philanthropy options for visas](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealand-tightens-english-standards-widens-philanthropy-options-visas-2026-05-24/)[Key immigration changes](https://www.restaurantnz.co.nz/2026/05/27/key-immigration-changes-rolling-out-across-2026/)

## Don't overlook the hospitality industry's own priorities

Hospitality New Zealand's August 2026 election manifesto calls for practical residence pathways for experienced hospitality workers and for work experience to count more formally in visa settings. That's especially relevant if your café relies on people who have learned on the job rather than accumulated formal qualifications. [MEDIA RELEASE: Hospitality New Zealand releases 2026 Election Manifesto](https://hospitality.org.nz/advocacy-and-insights/media-release-hospitality-new-zealand-releases-2026-election-manifesto)

You can read the published positions directly:

- [National — 2026 election policies](https://www.national.org.nz/policies?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- [Labour — immigration policy](https://www.labour.org.nz/immigration?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- [ACT — immigration proposals](https://www.act.org.nz/news/making_immigration_work_for_nz?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- [NZ First — September 2026 immigration policies](https://www.nzfirst.nz/nz_first_announces_immigration_reform_policies?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
- [Hospitality New Zealand — 2026 election manifesto](https://hospitality.org.nz/advocacy-and-insights/media-release-hospitality-new-zealand-releases-2026-election-manifesto?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

## How I'd apply this to your voting decision

Given your combination of rising costs, weaker customer spending and a small team, I would look at immigration policy alongside each party's small-business, employment, energy and crime policies. Immigration is only one part of your margin problem.

If hiring and retaining migrant staff is your biggest concern, Labour and the Greens have proposals worth examining closely on worker mobility, while National offers continuity with the existing framework. ACT's proposed surcharge deserves scrutiny if you sponsor temporary workers, and NZ First's more restrictive approach is worth weighing if you depend on migrant recruitment. These are comparisons of policy direction, not endorsements.

One detail would help me make the comparison much more useful: which roles are hardest for you to fill — baristas and front-of-house, kitchen staff, or a chef/manager? The answer can materially change which immigration proposals are relevant to your café.

## Gemini

Answer ID: 91d98416-ae9b-464d-95e3-167f1a9f83e4

Running a café right now is undeniably tough. Between high overheads (power and food costs), softer consumer spending, and the extra stress of dealing with security issues like a break-in, margins are squeezed to the absolute limit. 

When looking at how New Zealand's political parties compare on **immigration settings for hospitality workers**, the landscape ranges from pragmatic pro-market adjustments to calls for much tighter overall immigration controls. 

The major parties approach the hospitality workforce and broader immigration settings through distinct lenses:

---

### 1. National (Current Governing Direction)
* **Approach:** Pragmatic alignment with economic growth, focused on workforce shortages alongside structured settings.
* **Hospitality / Workforce Impact:** National's current settings (led by Immigration Minister Erica Stanford) have focused on the "Going for Growth" agenda, moving towards an occupation list replacing ANZSCO, and treating temporary work visas as pathways. While industry groups like Hospitality NZ have pushed for more flexible pathways and broader recognition of on-the-job experience over formal qualifications, National generally leans towards balancing business workforce needs with managed net migration. National has also publicly pushed back against some of the more radical restrictions proposed by coalition partners (such as abolishing permanent resident visas).

### 2. ACT New Zealand
* **Approach:** Market-driven and pro-business on hiring, but strict on enforcement and welfare.
* **Hospitality / Workforce Impact:** ACT emphasizes fewer bureaucratic hurdles for employers looking to hire the staff they need. Their policies lean towards a responsive, annually reviewed skilled jobs list that tracks actual economic gaps. However, ACT also advocates for much tighter restrictions on welfare access for new migrants (barring them for their first five years) and stricter overall enforcement, which appeals to business flexibility but comes with rigid compliance expectations.

### 3. New Zealand First
* **Approach:** Highly restrictive, nationalist, and "smart, controlled" immigration.
* **Hospitality / Workforce Impact:** NZ First has pushed the most extensive and restrictive package of immigration changes among the parties. Their platform includes doubling qualifying periods for permanent residency and citizenship (from 5 to 10 years), limiting work rights for international students, and a referendum on capping resident visas. For a café owner needing to draw on an international labor pool to fill kitchen or front-of-house roles, NZ First’s settings are designed to sharply reduce the overall volume of migrant workers and lengthen the time they can stay.

### 4. Labour Party
* **Approach:** Infrastructure- and capacity-linked migration, with a focus on worker protections.
* **Hospitality / Workforce Impact:** Labour argues that immigration must be tightly planned around what national housing, healthcare, and infrastructure can support. While Labour has criticized the rhetoric of treating migrants as scapegoats for wider economic issues, their formal policy package includes tightening residency timeframes and reviewing financial criteria for certain visas. They generally emphasize domestic training pathways and robust employment standards to curb worker exploitation over expanding low-skilled migrant access.

### 5. Green Party & Te Pāti Māori
* **Approach:** Human-rights-centric, with a focus on humanitarian pathways and fair treatment.
* **Hospitality / Workforce Impact:** The Greens generally push back against narratives that blame migrants for low wages or economic stagnation, focusing instead on systemic issues like wealth inequality and housing. While they support fair treatment and pathways against exploitation, their platform is less focused on easing commercial labor shortages for specific industries like hospitality and more focused on humanitarian, family, and climate-related migration.

---

### Summary Context for Your Vote
* If you want **streamlined processes and easier access to migrant labor** to fill urgent gaps, parties on the right (**ACT, National**) lean more toward accommodating business demand, though National balances this with infrastructure capacity.
* If you are concerned about **overall population growth, housing pressures, and tighter controls**, parties like **NZ First** and, to an extent, **Labour** advocate for stricter caps, longer paths to residency, and prioritizing domestic training pipelines.

*Industry context:* Peak bodies like **Hospitality New Zealand** have actively lobbied all parties ahead of the election to recognize practical on-the-job experience (rather than just formal qualifications) for residency pathways, and to better support domestic training pipelines from secondary school onwards. 

How do these different party approaches align with how you have been managing your staffing shortages lately?

## Google AI Mode

Answer ID: 47291264-267a-44da-bde2-3db9ec604c82

**New Zealand’s political parties offer distinct approaches to immigration settings for hospitality and service-sector workers, balancing labor-shortage relief for small business owners against broader population growth and wage targets.**

You can compare party policies and side-by-side stances on platforms like Policy.nz or through the general election debates hosted by outlets like Pacific Vote 2026. Policy.nz - NZ Election 2026Pacific Vote 2026 Debate: Six Parties on Cost of Living, Jobs

* * *

Party Positions on Hospitality Immigration and Work Visas

 * * **National Party (Incumbent Coalition Lead)**
 * **Approach:** Favors a balanced, demand-led Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) system that tightens rules against exploitation while allowing businesses access to migrant labor where local skills are genuinely missing.
 * **Focus for Cafés:** Emphasizes streamlining red tape for compliant employers, though overall settings target sustainable migration levels rather than an open door for low-wage roles.

 * **ACT New Zealand (Incumbent Coalition Partner)**
 * **Approach:** Generally advocates for pro-business, flexible immigration settings that make it easier for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to hire foreign workers when local labor is scarce.
 * **Focus for Cafés:** Supports reducing bureaucratic hurdles for employers and letting the labor market dictate staffing needs, aligning with lower regulatory intervention for small businesses.

 * **New Zealand First (Incumbent Coalition Partner)**
 * **Approach:** Historically pushes for a much more restrictive and conservative immigration policy to reduce overall net migration and ease pressure on housing and infrastructure.
 * **Focus for Cafés:** Tends to favor tightening work visa criteria, placing higher skill or wage thresholds, and prioritizing local training and recruitment over reliance on overseas hospitality workers.

 * **New Zealand Labour Party (Opposition)**
 * **Approach:** Seeks a managed migration system that links visa approvals closely to domestic labor market tests, ensuring local workers are prioritized while supporting sectors with critical shortfalls.
 * **Focus for Cafés:** Emphasizes fair pay, worker protections, and training pathways, balancing support for small business staffing needs with stricter scrutiny on migrant exploitation and wage compression.

 * **Green Party (Opposition)**
 * **Approach:** Focuses heavily on humane immigration settings, regularizing migrant workers already in New Zealand, and improving migrant rights rather than using temporary workforces as a low-cost labor buffer.
 * **Focus for Cafés:** Supports better baseline conditions, resident pathways for frontline service staff, and addressing the root causes of worker vulnerability, which can mean more compliance requirements for employers.

 * **Te Pāti Māori (Opposition)**
 * **Approach:** Advocates for indigenous-centered economic and immigration frameworks, emphasizing regional workforce needs and community-led solutions.
 * **Focus for Cafés:** Generally supports fair treatment and migrant dignity, while prioritizing local community and tangata whenua employment connections.

 *

* * *

Key Considerations for a Café Owner

 * * **Labor Access vs. Compliance Costs:** Right-leaning parties (National, ACT) generally pitch less regulatory friction for business owners hiring staff, whereas left-leaning and nationalist parties (Labour, Green, NZ First) place heavier emphasis on local wage floors, tighter labor market checks, or lower overall net migration targets.

 * **Broader Cost Pressures:** Immigration settings are only one piece of the puzzle regarding food, power, and security. When evaluating your vote for the 2026 New Zealand general election on **7 November 2026** , weigh how each party’s wider economic, crime-prevention, and energy policies address your operational margins alongside your staffing needs.

## AI Overviews

Answer ID: 05aeb89a-16f5-48af-a4cc-5d1fb87b542e

Running a café right now is incredibly tough as rising food costs, soaring power bills, tighter consumer spending, and the stress of a break-in all squeeze small business margins. When evaluating your vote for the 2026 New Zealand general election, **immigration policy directly dictates how easily you can source, retain, and pay mid-skilled or seasonal hospitality staff**.

The main political parties offer distinctly different approaches to work visas and migration settings heading into the election.

Summary Comparison of 2026 Party Immigration Policies

Political Party| Core Stance on Immigration Settings| Direct Impact on Hospitality Employers
---|---|---
**National**| **Maintain current settings, shift toward targeted, highly-skilled migration.**| Tightened English requirements for Skill Level 3 (e.g., hospitality supervisors/chefs) implemented in mid-2026 remain. Focuses heavily on skilled pathways while keeping the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) framework intact.
**ACT**| **Strictly demand-driven visas with annual reviews to prioritize locals.**| Skilled visa categories automatically lapse every year unless employers prove local shortages. Opposes broad-scale worker intake but introduces flexible sector-specific rules (like rural work) if a genuine shortage is verified.
**NZ First**| **Drastic tightening and lower migration caps.**| Promises to completely scrap the AEWV system and replace it with a restrictive "shortage-led" visa. Intends to hold a referendum to cap total resident visas at 20,000 annually, which would severely restrict long-term migrant worker availability.
**Labour**| **Capacity-led planning with a strong focus on migrant worker rights.**| Would allow visa-holding workers to freely move between different accredited employers after three months, designed to curb exploitation but potentially increasing staff turnover for business owners. Extends the pathway to permanent residency from two years to four.
**Greens**| **Humanitarian-focused, supportive of a broad pathway to residency.**| Opposes strict caps or anti-migrant restrictions. Favors regularizing undocumented workers and ending strict work visa stand-down periods, making it easier for temporary workers already in NZ to stay and work.

* * *

Key Policy Breakdown for Hospitality Business Owners

1\. National: Stability and Higher Skills

The National Party is running on its record of tightening up the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) to prevent migrant exploitation while introducing fast-tracked pathways for highly specialized workers.

 * **Hospitality Impact:** National implemented a rule in June 2026 introducing stricter English language requirements for Skill Level 3 roles, which directly covers many core hospitality jobs. If your café relies heavily on overseas applicants who have basic English skills, recruitment may be more difficult under National's framework.

2\. ACT: High Bar of Proof for Deficits

ACT believes that immigration should only be used when locals absolutely cannot fill the role.

 * **Hospitality Impact:** To counter the "stepping stone" effect to Australia, ACT wants to make temporary visas strictly temporary. If you employ migrants, they would face tighter limits on welfare access and tougher pathways to permanent status. You would also have to continually prove a domestic shortage to keep your visa allocation categories open.

3\. New Zealand First: Broad-Scale Restrictions

NZ First is positioning itself aggressively against high immigration numbers, advocating for a massive overhaul.

 * **Hospitality Impact:** Scrapping the AEWV in favor of a "shortage-led" Skilled Work Visa means hospitality—historically viewed by immigration officials as lower-to-mid skilled—could face a very high threshold to bring in foreign staff. A hard cap on residency visas would heavily shrink the pool of long-term migrant labor.

4\. Labour: Sector Planning and Worker Mobility

Labour wants to tie migration to "absorptive capacity"—matching numbers to infrastructure, housing, and specific workforce demographic needs.

 * **Hospitality Impact:** Labour’s most prominent policy change for employers is allowing migrants to leave their sponsoring employer after three months to move to a different accredited business. For a café owner, this could give you the flexibility to hire a worker away from another establishment, but it also removes the guarantee that a worker you spent time and money sponsoring will stay with you long-term.

* * *

If you would like to look closely at the rest of your business pressures, we can explore how the parties compare on **retail crime and policing** (addressing your break-in) or **minimum wage changes and business energy tariffs** (addressing your power and cost squeeze). Which area would you like to explore next?