With the country facing the prospect of a shortfall of half a million skilled workers, the PM’s September jobs and skills summit cannot come soon enough.
As companies struggle to fill job openings, we desperately need a stronger pipeline of skilled workers powering our economy.
Backlogs in visa processing do not help this aim and we applaud the Government’s announcement that extra resources would be made available to address the issue. We cannot afford to lose talented migrants owing to lengthy visa processing times.
The Property Council has partnered with other leading business groups to urge the Government to expedite visas and boost immigration. No other short term initiative has the potential to make such a positive impact on the skills crisis we are in.
We have also argued for a tourism-style ‘Welcome to Australia’ marketing strategy to capitalise on our strengths and attract the talent we need.
Beyond this immediate challenge, the jobs summit also needs to create an agenda that will underpin productivity growth. At the end of the day, jobs need a prosperous business environment to flourish. We’ll have more to say about this in coming weeks.
