From another post in another fb page:
𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚
Premier Roger Cook to urge Federal Government to reverse cuts to WA’s skilled migrant allocation:
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬
The Premier is calling on the Federal Government to reverse a decision to slash WA’s nominated skilled migrant intake by 70 per cent — saying the workers are “desperately” needed to build new homes and fill a range of jobs. Credit: Michael Wilson/The West Australian
The Commonwealth has notified the State Government its allocation for the State Nominated Migration Program would be drastically cut from more than 8000 places to just 2350 this financial year.
The SNMP allows States to specifically decide which overseas skilled workers they need to fill the local jobs in demand.
But the Albanese Government’s plan to cut WA numbers has prompted the Premier to write a letter to his Federal leader objecting to the shock decision.
“I will always fight for what is best for Western Australia,“ Mr Cook said.
“WA is the economic powerhouse of the nation and we desperately need more skilled workers — not less — to meet the demand being driven by our booming economy, specifically in our housing construction industry but also in key areas like health and hospitality.
“If we want to build more houses then we need more workers.”
WA’s skilled nominated visa allocation will drop from 5350 to 1500, while skilled work regional visas will plummet from 2790 to 850, unless the Cook Government can convince Federal Labor to change its mind.
And the State will get no migrants from the Business Innovation and Investment Program after receiving 40 last financial year, even though applications for this program are at record highs.
Despite the total allocation being slashed by nearly 6000, demand from prospective migrants remains high, with 5000 expressing interest in WA’s Skilled Migrant Employment Register.
The Premier said that while local jobs were his “number one priority”, WA was experiencing a significant uptick in work in the pipeline as well as a backlog of jobs that need to be completed.
“We need a mass injection of skilled workers to get work moving along so we can get more people into homes, more infrastructure built and sustain the highly specialised roles that can’t be filled,” he said. “The Commonwealth needs to review this decision immediately.”
Mr Cook will ask the Federal Government for 10,000 places on the SNMP, the same request made last financial year when 8180 were granted.
It is expected the issue will be raised at a Skills Summit in Perth this week.
The unprecedented demand for workers, particularly in industries such as housing, health and hospitality, continues to be fuelled by a tight local labour market with WA recording an unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent in July — below the national average of 3.7.
The shock SNMP decision by the Federal Government comes in stark contrast to an acute worker shortage which last year saw a Chicken Treat in the Pilbara offer $130,000 for a store manager and a Broome cafe offer a $92,000 barista job.
The State Government implemented a raft of changes in response to make it easier for skilled migrants to come to WA, including scrapping application fees and reducing English standards and expanding the number of occupations to its priority occupation list from 170 to 286.
Then-Premier Mark McGowan globe-trotted from Rome to Doha to spruik the changes, in hopes to fill the roles in a diverse range of occupations — a far cry from when he first became Premier in 2017 and sought to remove WA from the Regional Skilled Migration Scheme to put “West Australian jobs first”.
While more workers are needed to build new homes, the Catch 22 is that the State lacks the homes to house these would-be workers.
The West on Friday revealed that Perth was experiencing its worst ever housing shortage, with properties for sale in Perth dropping by 24 per cent over the year.