Queenstown migrant workers need access to benefit - community group

Community leaders say the worker crisis in the Wakatipu has not reached its full extent, as they brace for more requests for food and clothing over the coming weeks.

Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Jim Boult told councillors that the district's economy is predicted to shrink by 40 percent with unemployment likely to reach 25 to 30 percent.

More than 8400 welfare requests had been made to the council since the Covid-19 outbreak.

A fund launched on Thursday to provide help for those in need in the district has raised more than $558,000.

Wakatipu Greatest Needs Fund lead fundraiser Kaye Parker said everything had changed.

"We've gone from being the fastest growing and the most wealthy region, behind Auckland and now we're predicting 30 percent unemployment."

Parker said the most vulnerable were migrant workers, many of whom have not been in the country for two years so were not eligible for the government's benefits.

"They are in terrible strife.

"We are a civilised country and we cannot allow people to have no money, shelter and necessary clothing, especially as we enter winter."

Queenstown has a diverse workforce of about 5000 to 7000 workers drawn from around the world, including South America, the Philippines and Australia.

"People from all over the world have been caught out."

Parker said that with a change in the alert level, there was another threat coming.

"We call it our second tsunami that's going to be coming, 60 days from Tuesday. Unless the government changes its mind and lets these workers access a benefit in 60 days' time they will have nothing. The landlords will be able to evict them, there will be nowhere for them to live."

Queenstown businessman Sir Eion Edgar is one of the foundation's major donors and has set Parker the challenge of raising $1 million.

"None of us has a timeframe, all we know is that we need to be around longer, we need to roll up our sleeves and work as hard as we have been."

Salvation Army expects rise in number of people in need

Salvation Army Queenstown community ministries director Lieutenant Andrew Wilson is one of the recipients of the Wakatipu Greatest Needs Fund.

He said 95 percent of the people using contacting the Salvation Army hadn't used their services before.

"In the first few weeks, it was predominately migrants, as the weeks have gone on it has been more locals as they are being made redundant."

In the past week, local leaders have described the situation in Queenstown as an economic blood bath and a horror show as more businesses announce redundancies.

Wilson doesn't think that people are being dramatic.

"I'm not sure there are any other words that you can use describe the situation where people are stuck away from their home country, without any income, still having to pay for their food, their rent and heating.

"So I liken it to a refugee crisis because that is what we are effectively seeing."

He said one of the big concerns staff had was what life looked like after the wage subsidy ended and more redundancies w ere likely to be be made.

"We're working on the understanding that the fullest extent of this hasn't been reached yet."

He said in a perfect world they were still looking at months and months before the bulk of migrants who needed to, went home.

"That's just the sheer volume of people, so there's still a group of people who are staring down the barrel of being evicted once we get past the 60 days rent arrears date and not being able to pay for their food as well as winter clothing."

He said while the reduction in the alert level may allow some workers to return to jobs they held before the lockdown, "there is an expectation that we will continue to see a rise in numbers over the coming weeks".