Sydney, June 11: The head of a construction services company is warning a drop in Australia’s skilled migrant intake and bureaucratic hold-ups will force businesses to increasingly seek overseas suppliers and put another nail in the coffin for Australian manufacturing.
Migration is emerging as a key issue ahead of next year’s Federal election, with both the Government and Opposition vowing to reduce the number of people coming into Australia.
But Managing Director of Instant Products Group Scott Rawson says a reduction in the number of skilled migrants will place added pressure on an already tight labour market.
“We saw the national unemployment rate fall to four per cent in May, with skills shortages continuing to impact a wide variety of industries. At the same time, we’re seeing continued growth in sectors such as residential and commercial construction, civil works, and mining and resources. We need more people to fill these jobs, not less.”
Rawson says the lack of skilled labour locally is now forcing his company to source overseas suppliers, because local companies simply can’t keep up.
“In the last six months alone we’ve had to start sourcing components for our portable building manufacturing from overseas, because even despite current shipping delays, the product is still arriving two to three times faster than local lead times. One of our door suppliers based in South Australia currently has a lead time of between eight and 16 weeks. We want to support local manufacturers as much as we can, but we simply can’t wait that long. I have no doubt there are other businesses in the same position.”
Rawson says any changes to the migration policy need to be around two key areas: increased skilled migration and removing bureaucratic delays.
He believes the Federal Government should allow more types of skilled workers into Australia, including tradespeople such as carpenters, boilermakers, and steel fabricators, to address the aging population and the lack of young people entering these trades.
Additionally, he highlights the difficulties and delays associated with the application and approval processes when bringing in skilled workers.
“It’s not enough for the Government to simply support and promote skilled migration, they need to also improve the application process to assist businesses to bring on workers in an efficient and timely manner.”
Rawson acknowledges that housing an increasing population is an ongoing challenge but argues it will be easier to add housing supply with more workers.
“We need more workers to build homes, not less. We know housing construction times are blowing out now, but how long do you think it’ll take to build a home if suddenly we’ve got even fewer workers?”
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