Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Moore for the question. As senators would be aware, we have a huge skills crisis in this country. Industry and small business are crying out for skilled labour, and they have been for some time. The resources boom, low levels of unemployment and the Howard government’s failure to invest in the skills training of our own people have contributed to the skills crisis that the Rudd Labor government inherited.

The strong economic growth we have experienced in recent years cannot be continued if we do not increase our capacities in the skills area. It has been a significant constraint; it is a significant constraint on growth and will continue to be so unless addressed. Research by the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry indicates that Western Australia will need an extra 400,000 workers over the next decade—400,000 workers, indicated by the WA chamber of commerce’s research. As part of the budget, the Treasurer announced that our government would be making a $19.3 billion investment in education and training to ensure we continue to provide employment and training opportunities for Australians. Our first priority is to train Australians to meet the skills needs of the country. We outlined our commitment to fund for over five years up to 630,000 new training places. Those places will skill Australians for jobs of tomorrow and help close existing skills gaps. There are 85,000 apprenticeship opportunities, 238,000 training places for those outside the workforce and 392,000 places for existing workers.

In addition to these measures, we need to lift our migration program in order to meet the short-term skills needs and the ongoing skills requirements of this country. Given our demographics, the ageing of our population, we need more workers from overseas. We simply will not have enough Australian workers to meet the demands of the economy. Anywhere you go in Australia, you can talk to employers, be it from industry or from small business, who are crying out for labour, whose capacity to grow their businesses is restricted by their inability to get the skilled workers they need. That is why the Rudd Labor government added an extra 31,000 skilled migration places to the 2008-09 migration program. This is a 30 per cent increase on 2007-08, when the Howard government added just 5,000 places.

The permanent skilled migration program is a capped scheme which was not allowed to grow quickly under the previous government. What the previous government saw was enormous growth in temporary skilled migration. People could not get in under the permanent scheme so they came in under the temporary scheme. If employers could not get the permanent workers they needed, they brought them in as temporary. Labor have always argued for a preference for permanent skilled migration to this country. So we are looking to redress the balance, if you like, in favour of permanent migration as well as still allowing the temporary skilled migration system to grow according to demand. This is the largest increase in the number of places in the permanent skilled migration program since the department of immigration was established in 1947. It is a response to the economic needs of industry and business in Australia. It is a sign that we are committed to growing the economy by meeting the skills needs through both training of our own people and a strong immigration program that is responsive to the skills needs of the economy. (Time expired)