RSE scheme workers benefiting from financial literacy seminars

Transcript

Pacific workers in New Zealand under the recognised seasonal employer scheme have been encouraged to spend their hard-earned money wisely.

The Pacific Islands Trade and Invest office in Auckland has been running workshops on financial literacy and offering ideas for investment back home in the islands.

Alex Perrottet reports.

The RSE scheme has been running since 2007 and is popular with New Zealand employers. Workers from Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu have been a part of it so far. The Director of Vinepower, Jono Bushell, says the scheme has helped his company find stability with lots of hardworking farmers returning year after year.

JONO BUSHELL: A lot of the guys have been maybe four, five, six times, so we get the same people working on the same blocks, on the same plants, on an annual basis, so it has a huge impact on the quality of work that's happening.

Jono Bushell says if the workers do find work in Vanuatu, they would be earning less than $2 US dollars an hour. He says on contract in New Zealand, some workers can earn $15 US dollars an hour and work 40 to 50 hours a week, but then there's the question of what to do with their savings. The Acting Trade Commissioner of Pacific Islands Trade and Invest, Manuel Valdez, is running financial literacy workshops and telling them there's many ways to invest back home.

MANUEL VALDEZ: We want them to save their money wisely and invest that hard-earned money when they go back to their home countries. So that's why the seminar focuses on the financial literacy and at the same time giving them a list of investment opportunities. They can go into piggeries, stores, aquaponics, petrol stations, shuttle bus.

Jono Bushell says he too has invested in Vanuatu, setting up a coconut oil business in Tanna, and he plans on taking some of the ni-Vanuatu workers back with him to help them give back to their own country.

JONO BUSHELL: They're taking home thousands of New Zealand dollars, which converts to hundreds of thousands of Vatu. I know a lot goes into education, a lot goes into community projects such as water etc, but a lot of it is frittered away. So to be able to encourage them to get involved in business and set something up is really the next step for us.

The Consul General of Vanuatu, Mckenzie Kalotiti, was at the workshop in Blenheim last week, and helped translate in Bislama for some of the workers. He says many of the almost 3000 ni-Vanuatu workers in New Zealand are happy to learn the value of money and how to use it wisely.

McKENZIE KALOTITI: It's changed a lot of people's lives dramatically, in the rural areas, and even the school-leavers or the dropouts or those who can't find jobs, this scheme has done a lot for them, not just financially but mentally and physically and spiritually. Because these workers come from a long long way to make their lives better by joining the scheme and like I say it's added value to the economy of Vanuatu and it's added value to the people's lives as well.

Mr Kalotiti says Pacific Islands Trade and Invest, a trade branch of the Pacific Islands Forum, has played a hands-on role up and down the country, and not just for the ni-Vanuatu. Manuel Valdez says the seminars are being held in Hawkes Bay, Hastings, Katikati, Kerikeri, Pukekohe, and Blenheim.