Australia to cut skilled migration
Updated
In a bid to protect jobs, the Australian Government is cutting the intake of skilled migrant workers.
In a sign of the times, the permanent skilled migration programme is being slashed by 18-thousand over the next three months, with no foreign brick-layers, plumbers, carpenters or electricians allowed in for the forseeable future. And the migrant worker programme is likely to be cut back further in the May Budget.
Presenter: Alexandra Kirk
Speakers: Chris Evans, Immigration Minister; Peter Anderson, Australian Chamber Of Commerce and Industry; Wilhelm Harnisch, chief executive officer of Master Builders Australia
- Listen:
- Windows Media
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The economy is slowing fast so the Federal Government's taking the razor to the permanent skilled migration program in a bid to stem local job losses.
CHRIS EVANS: We are going to cut it from 133,500 to 115,000. So that is about a 14 per cent cut.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Immigration Minister Chris Evans took hairdressers and cooks off Australia's critical skills shortage list last Christmas. Now he's removing a swag of other occupations, such as bricklayers, carpenters, fitters, welders, plumbers and toolmakers - in fact all the building and manufacturing trades.
CHRIS EVANS: We don't want people coming in who are going to compete with Australians for limited jobs.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Do you see much changing next year, next financial year?
CHRIS EVANS: Well, not at this stage. What we look to do is run a smaller program and keep the capacity to make sure we can bring in any labour that we might need as the year develops.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: Employers can still apply to bring in foreign tradies by sponsoring them or using the special 457 visa category for temporary migrant workers. But they have to prove they can't source labour locally and that's becoming increasingly difficult to justify as the economy contracts.
The ACTU says it's prudent to make the cuts when unemployment is on the rise.
But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Peter Anderson says even in tough times there'll still be trades skills shortages.
PETER ANDERSON: We would have preferred a status quo position. The risk is that you don't want migration policy to move in high peaks and low troughs because that does create dislocation through the economy, and often in this area it is far better to allow the labour market to operate in a more natural way.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: The Master Builders organisation though says the cut to the migration program is warranted. Chief executive Wil Harnisch says unemployment in building and construction is heading up at an alarming rate.
WIL HARNISCH: We are projecting at least a loss of 50,000 jobs in this industry over the next 12 months.
ALEXANDRA KIRK: And you don't foresee things changing as a result of the billions that the Government is going to put into our infrastructure projects?
WIL HARNISCH: We are still seeing a significant slowdown in building activity that simply cannot be made up by the Government stimuli packages.
