Proposal to bring bubbles of 300 RSE workers to Hastings for managed isolation

Friday, 4 December 2020

The former Angus Hotel in Hastings. Could it become a managed isolation facility for RSE workers?

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins is considering a proposal to turn a former Hastings motel into a Managed Isolation and Quarantine facility specifically for 300-strong bubbles of returning fruit pickers from the Pacific Islands.

The proposal was included in a plan submitted by Hawke's Bay councils and local horticultural and viticultural industries to the government last month.

The industry and councils are concerned about the huge shortage of workers and the “significant social and economic impact for New Zealand and the Hawke’s Bay region”.

The RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer) scheme usually brings in 14,000 workers. The government has agreed to allow 2000 workers in under strict conditions. These would add to the 5000 still in the country, meaning there would be roughly half the usual number of RSE workers for the upcoming picking season.

Yummy Fruit Company general manager Paul Paynter says the proposal makes sense. (File photo)

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The Angus Hotel could house bubbles of up to 300 people. (File photo)

The proposal would see the former Angus Hotel in Hastings turned into an MIQ facility.

The former Angus Hotel has been assessed as suitable as a managed isolation facility. (File photo)

It “would either be a government-run or government-mandated facility meeting all government MIQ requirements” with dedicated charter flights arranged to bring in 300 people from one Pacific country at a time, the proposal stated.

The former hotel has been used as RSE accommodation for several years and has been assessed by Hawke's Bay DHB as being suitable as a managed isolation facility.

Hipkins said he was aware of the proposal and had asked officials to provide more advice “on bespoke accommodation options”.

“Providing an effective managed isolation and quarantine system to keep New Zealanders safe remains a top priority. How we do this in future could change as we continue to learn more and as situations change overseas,” he said.

“There are real constraints on adding new facilities that have to be considered carefully. These include the essential workforce who care for and protect returnees, and the additional resources that would be required to audit infection controls at any bespoke facilities. The auditing processes applied to government-run MIFs and MIQs are necessarily complex, exhaustive and time-consuming,” Hipkins said.

There are presently 32 managed isolation facilities. They are in Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Rotorua and Christchurch.

Yummy Fruit Company general manager Paul Paynter said the proposal made sense.

”One of our real concerns in the industry is that we bring in people from Covid-free nations in the Pacific and put them into one of the current facilities which we seem to hear each day have had another positive case. We don’t want RSE workers in with people from countries like Ukraine and Pakistan,” he said.

“We know from the 1918 Spanish flu that the repercussions of a disease entering the likes of Samoa would be devastating. That is something we really do not want,” Paynter said.