“We welcome the Coalition’s plan to protect the number of skilled visa holders who come to our country, as they are vital to keep our economy running and growing,” said Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, Australian Industry Group.
“Australia needs to maintain this critical skills stream if we want to deliver on key community priorities – from building more homes, developing new high technology industries and supporting the health and aged care services we will require as the population ages.
“The reality is that we are already suffering chronic workforce shortages in all of these areas and across the broader economy. It is clear we cannot train enough people to solve these challenges without skilled migration.
“The current debate on migration levels is not a new phenomenon and is a response to real cost pressures on businesses and households. Migration levels and their make up should be regularly reviewed to ensure the program is not just set and forget and rather remains fit for purpose. Maintaining a strong core of skills-based migration across our economy is central to our economic success.
“The skilled migration program must be transparent and responsive to the needs of our economy as well as individual employers who cannot fill vital skills gaps with the constraints around mobility and skills shortages within the domestic workforce.
“We should streamline skills recognition, onshore and offshore processing, licensing and credential recognition and make visa processing more predictable and timely.
“While there is a debate about migration levels there needs to be an understanding that our skills and training system needs investment to reduce cost, complexity and compliance to ensure it is fit for purpose.
“We should also be able to communicate properly with Australians about how we cannot do it without this critical skills pipeline,” Mr Willox said.
