It’s Monday, a little under four weeks out from the election, and the weekend’s policy announcements reached the visitor economy from two directions: who can be hired, and what the coast is protected for. Five items. Here’s what’s moving.
NZ First would scrap the Accredited Employer Work Visa and tie entry to proven shortages
NZ First announced on Saturday that it would end the Accredited Employer Work Visa and replace it with a “shortage-led” Skilled Work Visa. Entry would be tied to a named occupation, a region and demonstrated need, not to an employer holding accreditation. The party’s list includes limiting access to genuine shortages, ending “routine retail access”, a New Zealand worker safeguard, a requirement for real domestic recruitment, a restored wage floor and tougher enforcement where the risk is highest. Its argument is that the visa has become a general recruitment channel for ordinary jobs, and that employers wanting migrants for routine roles should first prove they have tried to employ or train New Zealanders.
Hospitality and tourism are not named anywhere in the policy, but they do not need to be. Kitchens, front desks and housekeeping are the kind of roles the party appears to mean by routine, and hospitality has been one of the heavier users of the accredited employer route. What the announcement does not say matters as much as what it does: there is no figure for the wage floor, no definition of a “routine” role, and nothing on what happens to people already here on the current visa. A minor party’s pledge only becomes policy through coalition talks, but this one lands in a labour market where unemployment is at its highest in a decade, which makes the argument easier to make at the table.
Stat of the day
13.8%
The labour underutilisation rate in the June 2026 quarter, up from 12.9% the quarter before, the figure NZ First uses to argue that routine roles can be filled at home. (Stats NZ, via 1News)
Source: RNZ, NZ First release via Scoop, 1News (labour market figures)
National pledges a Waiheke marine reserve and a bigger Goat Island, five years after the application went in
National’s fishing and oceans policy, announced on Saturday, promises to establish the 23.5 square kilometre Hākaimangō-Matiatia marine reserve off northwest Waiheke and to expand Goat Island, Te Hāwere-a-Maki, the country’s first marine reserve and one of its most visited snorkelling spots. The package also bans commercial fishing in the Hauraki Gulf’s high protection areas by removing the ring-net exemptions, reviews bottom trawling with a target of protecting 50% of the EEZ by 2040, up from 32%, and rules out a recreational fishing licence. No size or boundary was given for the Goat Island expansion.
The Waiheke reserve has been waiting a long time. The Friends of the Hauraki Gulf applied in 2022, drew about 1,300 submissions with 93% in support, and DOC reported to the Conservation Minister in November 2024. No decision followed, and in September the group’s lawyers wrote to the minister foreshadowing High Court proceedings. Its chair, Mike Lee, welcomed the pledge on Monday but asked for the order in council to be signed now, before the election, “and not just be another election promise”. The Friends say the Ngāti Paoa Iwi Trust and some local landowners objected to the reserve. For Waiheke’s day-visitor trade, which already sells the island on its coast, a no-take reserve at the ferry end of the island is an asset; the open question is whether it arrives this term or becomes coalition currency after 7 November.
Source: NZ Herald, Friends of the Hauraki Gulf via Scoop
Christchurch’s new stadium loses its World Supercross finale as the series abandons 2026
World Supercross has cancelled the rest of its 2026 championship after holding only the opening round in Calgary in August, taking with it the 5 December finale at One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch. The series would have made its New Zealand debut there with the world titles expected to be decided on the night. The promoter said it remains in advanced discussions with potential investors about the future of the series and had decided to end the current season while those talks continue.
General tickets had not gone on sale, and the premium hospitality packages already sold will be refunded. Venues Ōtautahi, which runs the stadium, said it was disappointed for fans and pointed to “a strong pipeline” of events ahead, without naming a replacement for the date. The loss is a reminder that a new stadium’s calendar depends partly on promoters whose own finances the venue cannot see: an international event in early December would have brought visitors into the city at the start of the summer peak, and that gap now has to be filled at short notice. Auckland’s separate AUSX event on 31 October is a different series and is not affected.
Source: Otago Daily Times, NZ Herald, Motorcycling New Zealand
Three Great Rides share $1.2 million, most of it for boardwalks that flood
MBIE announced on Friday that about $1.213 million from the Ngā Haerenga New Zealand Cycle Trail Fund will go to three Great Ride projects. The West Coast Wilderness Trail gets $975,000 to upgrade the Mahinapua boardwalks, the Waikato River Trail gets $135,000 to regrade its Waipapa section, and the Coppermine Trail in Nelson gets $103,011 for the Maitai Connection. Local partners are adding more than $718,000, taking the total past $1.9 million.
The weighting tells you where the trails’ problems are. The Mahinapua boardwalks cross swampland south of Hokitika that floods regularly, and DOC warns that heavy rain can leave them under water and impassable, which on a trail sold as a multi-day ride means a closed section in the middle of someone’s itinerary. The fund’s infrastructure round is explicitly about repairing and replacing what exists, not adding new rides, and these three follow ten earlier projects that shared $3.8 million from the same round.
Source: MBIE, Department of Conservation (Mahinapua Walkway)
Auckland Airport’s eGates go down intermittently on Monday morning
A fault in the Customs system that runs passport control has been taking the eGates at Auckland Airport down intermittently this morning, for both departures and arrivals. While they are down, Customs officers are processing passengers by hand, and the airport has warned of longer than usual waits at passport control. An Auckland Airport spokesperson said its operations and technology teams were working with Customs to fix it as quickly as possible. As at 8.48am Customs had not commented and there was no estimate of when the system would be stable.
If you have guests arriving or departing through Auckland today, build in extra time at the border and keep an eye on airline apps for delay notices.
Source: RNZ
Coming up
- 14 October: CAA consultation on the security levy cut closes at noon, and Stats NZ releases international travel figures for August
- 22 October: Waitākere Ranges Local Board votes on the future of Piha Beach Campground, and Lyttelton’s 2026-27 cruise season opens
- 26 October: Air New Zealand’s first Auckland to Western Sydney service
- 28 October: Reserve Bank OCR decision, and Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Singapore service
- 1 November: Backcountry Hut Tickets move to DOC’s online booking system
- 4 November: Tourism Summit Aotearoa and the NZ Tourism Awards, Te Pae Christchurch, and Stats NZ’s September quarter labour market figures
- 7 November: General election
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.