Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters says he isn't against tax breaks for industries struggling to find New Zealand staff.

This follows a number of industries including, orchards, trucking, hospitality and retail, saying they cannot find enough staff to run their businesses. 

Speaking with Mike Hosking, Peters said often Kiwi workers don't want to work for the low wages offered, which means the jobs go to overseas workers.

"All of a sudden we started relying on imported pickers."

"Now there's a disconnect here, which wasn't essential at the time when the industry was at its best...making $11 a case...The industry didn't need that." 

"So what went wrong here? Our reliance on lower wages by mainly foreign workers and I can show you all over the country where we are going to need to address that."

"If it requires tax breaks for the industry fine, but let's be employing our own people first and not saying I can't get someone because  no one in New Zealand is interested in those lousy wages."

However, he said there is a "dysfunctional" relationship between unemployment and benefit figures.

"Unemployment is low but the number of people on benefits is up, so we have got to get on top of this."

Peters blamed the number of people on unemployment benefits on the lack of targeted training and accommodation.

"There is a number of reasons for that, one of them is that we have not been, as an economy and as governments, training people for the jobs that are available in the places where they are available."

"You've got people who are hundreds of miles away from where the jobs are, who would be interested but they can't find accommodation."

"So we've got all this...dysfunctionalism going on that we have to address as fast as we possibly can."

However, Peters said the short term solution is to hire foreign workers to fill the gaps.

"When it comes to trucking, we are going to have to allow people to come into this country to fill the void in the meantime."

He said it's about bringing people to New Zealand that we need, no the other way around.