300,000 skilled workers needed - Evans

AUSTRALIA'S economy cannot continue to grow without a lot more skilled migrant workers, Immigration Minister Chris Evans says.

Senator Evans warned today of an ageing population and a range of industries that could not find enough skilled workers to enable their businesses to grow.

"So there is a huge demand. We will meet it by upskilling our own people, but we have got to make sure we have got strong skilled migration as well if we are going to grow," the senator told Sky news.

"We will be investing an awful lot in the education revolution and skilling our own people.

"But the reality is we have an ageing population. Unless we have migration we are not going to be able to grow our workforce."

Under a revised immigration program announced this week, Australia will substantially lift its intake of migrants, particularly those with necessary skills.

That includes 190,300 in the permanent migration stream, 56,500 in the family stream and about 50,000 in the temporary skilled migration program - totalling more than 300,000.

This is the biggest yearly increase since the immigration program was launched in the 1940s.

Senator Evans said for the first time in the past year the workforce grew more from imported labour than from Australians taking new jobs.

"So we have got to have skilled migration to grow the economy. At the moment there is a real constraint on our capacity to grow because we just don't have enough workers," he said.

Senator Evans said there were significant skilled vacancies in the growth states, and there was a challenge to better connect those coming into Australia with areas where there were jobs.

"We don't want them all flocking into Sydney," he said.

"We actually want them going to Queensland, Western Australian and South Australia where there is huge demand for skills that they can't find elsewhere."

Opposition immigration spokesman Chris Ellison said the Government was continuing what the Coalition Government started.

He said the Coalition lifted the skilled migration content from 30 to 70 per cent of the total program.

"So we certainly don't disagree with the Government's announcement that it will be increasing the skilled migration program by 31,000," he said.

"But it is important that the Government resource the Department of Immigration to accommodate this."

Senator Ellison said the Opposition would be assessing the impact of the Government's public service efficiency cuts.

He said he had received complaints from business on the time it takes to employ a worker under the 457 visa temporary skilled immigrant program.

Senator Ellison said the Government had also forecast a rise in unemployment.

"The whole purpose of skilled migrations is to ensure you are bringing in skilled people to fill jobs where no local worker is available. It will require careful management," he said.

May 17, 2008 06:13pm