Hi Froggy
I don't know that getting PR would be 'more risky' as long as you have enough points and satisfy all the other criteria, a lot of which you would have to undertake for the WTR route anyway.
With the WTR you are tied to one employer for 2 years so it's a gamble whether you get a job you're happy with. With PR you can choose who to work for and can move about within the job market as you wish (unless you have a Section 18A imposed where you have to stay with the original employer for 3 months, I believe).
If your partner is looking for a job now and wants to apply for a WTR visa yet you don't intend going to NZ until next year, you need to be careful about timing. I think there's some ruling where you have to take up the position within a certain time of getting the visa, maybe 3 months. If you have any kind of long term visa like the WTR and then go on to make an application for PR, I think it's right that you'll have to do your medicals and police certificates twice over to cover each application because of the time lag in between. If you apply for PR alone, you would only need to do them once.
If your partner wants a visa to work on and then apply for PR fairly soon after arriving in NZ, he could get a short term Work Permit to allow him to work and then submit the PR application, which will take several months to be processed anyway. I'm not really clear on when you are hoping to submit your PR application.
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Mother Bear 
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