New Zealand well short of qualified gasfitters

12 February 2025

With 2664 qualified gasfitters in New Zealand, the country is 38 percent short of where it needs to be according to Greg Wallace, chief executive of the Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Association.

What’s more, the pool of qualified tradespeople is aging, with the average age of a gasfitter being 47.

Worse, new trainee numbers have recently “dropped through the floor”, Wallace says.

It is not as if there isn’t demand in New Zealand, with gas water heating alone having 39 percent of the market.

And with it taking seven years to become fully qualified, Wallace says we will need tradespeople with skills in hydrogen and biogas in upcoming years, but currently training in renewable gases isn’t part of the curriculum.

Qualified gasfitters are moving to Australia in droves, he says. And it’s easy to see why.

“In Victoria, on a unionised site, year one a plumbing apprentice can earn $120,000 a year.”

Compared to Australia, training facilities in New Zealand are of a poor standard, Wallace says.

There is no training for hydrogen, and little recognition of the innovation coming on stream.

“We have new products coming from our suppliers all the time, but we don’t put that in a training environment.”

Wallace says New Zealand needs to create a centre of excellence for gasfitter training, including biogas and hydrogen.

Australia has one centre of excellence for gas training with five campuses, with the Victorian centre alone serving a population of 7.5 million people.

It’s “ludicrous” for New Zealand with its population to have 14 training providers for gas spread around the country “with none of them doing gas well”, he says.