David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to put a very important issue before the Senate—that is, what has happened in Western Australia with respect to the response of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to our skill shortage. I commence by mentioning the names of two outstanding Commonwealth officers: Mr Glen Dival and Ms Karen Crockford. They are two members of the immigration department who have been performing their duties as outreach officers, Mr Dival with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Ms Crockford with the chamber of mines, the Australian Mines and Metals Association and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. Both of those individuals have been at the coalface securing skilled migrants into areas in my home state of Western Australia where there has been chronic skill shortage, such that the jobs of other Australians and the wellbeing and financial viability of many projects have been threatened.

I also pause to compliment Mr Jose Alvarez; the former state director of the department of immigration in Western Australia, the current state director; the new state director, Mr Bruce MacKay; and the deputy state director, Ms Joanne Verikios. Each of those five people, particularly the senior officers, has been instrumental in attacking the issue of skill shortage in Western Australia through the provision and the promotion of various solutions and responses, such that a number of industries—and I will deal with those industries a little later on—have been able to maintain consistent viability in the face of a chronic labour and chronic skilled labour shortage. The outreach officers go to employers in each of those two streams of industry—the mining industry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry—and provide assistance to employers to access skilled migrants from various places around the world for employment in jobs in Western Australia.

I have received numerous items of feedback from employers, particularly in regional Western Australia, who compliment me and the government on the very successful outreach officer program in Western Australia. I attended the launch in September of last year at Austal Ships. Austal are the world’s largest producer of fast passenger aluminium ferries and are based at Henderson in Western Australia. Austal, as I am given to understand by their production manager, had severe skill shortages, particularly in aluminium welding. They have accessed some 23 Filipino welders, who have come into Austal. Austal produce Australia’s Armidale class patrol boats, amongst other vessels, for the Australian Defence Force. Those 23 highly skilled Filipino welders have been able to fill a void that the management at Austal was having significant difficulty with. That has meant that the whole shipyard now has contracts on the books which they can anticipate completing on time and on budget of more than $350 million. That has been a huge response with the assistance, as I understand it, of the outreach officers.

I say in passing that at the beginning of 2005 we had 394,000 new apprentices in training throughout Australia, a great tribute to the efforts of ministers in the Howard government. That is a very favourable comparison to the mere 144,000 that we inherited in the mid-1990s. There has been a huge effort on the part of the government to train and to bring on skilled apprentices. In Western Australia, the demand in the minerals and mining, fabrication and engineering, and the oil and gas sectors has been, in short, overwhelming. Accordingly, there has had to be an innovative, resourceful response to this demand. We are talking about growth rates approaching and beyond 10 per cent per annum. The outreach officers go into the peak industry organisations, at the coalface, analyse the demands of the employers in these industries that are experiencing this phenomenal growth and then go away and provide assistance to those employers to access skilled migrants.

The Commonwealth government has been working very hard, hand in hand with business, to provide support and assistance to make Australian industry—particularly minerals processing, mining and manufacturing in Western Australia—competitive and successful. There are 16 outreach officers throughout Australia. Those officers are dealing with industry on a direct, face-to-face basis. I hope and trust that they are as successful and as productive as Mr Dival and Ms Crockford have been in Western Australia. The circumstances of the outreach officers are that the host peak body provides office space, support arrangements, telephones and all of the necessary resources on the ground to make the position of the outreach officer successful and focused. The department, on the other hand, provides the salary for the skilled and highly trained officer, travel expenses and other incidental support. It is a hand-in-hand partnership between industry, business and government, and the outreach officers are out there in the workplace trying to arrest a very difficult problem.

As I have said, Western Australia has had tremendous growth in the industries that I have named—to the point where most Western Australian government members have been besieged by employers in various industry sectors asking what can be done about the chronic skills shortage. In 2004 we took those concerns to the minister, and I must say that Minister Vanstone has responded quite magnificently with the innovation and mobilisation of these outreach officers and in providing a comprehensive package of initiatives. The minister has initiated 20,000 extra skilled migration places, and I believe a very large proportion of those will be going to my home state of Western Australia.

Priority has been given to employer sponsored positions. Members on the other side of the Senate chamber will be interested to know that priority has also been given to state sponsored positions. The states are partnering the Commonwealth government in accessing skilled migration from around the world. That is something I think the opposition in this place needs to come to terms with. There has been promotion of various visa options to migrants and foreign visitors in this country who can apply to work while they are here and also to enhance the knowledge of Australian employers as to what is available through the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs in the nature of acquiring skilled migrants to assist in their businesses.

I pause to congratulate the minister with respect to what has taken place in Western Australia. It has been quite outstanding—and I know that it is going to go on. The leadership displayed by the minister in response to what was a huge problem for our state has been quite significant and very successful. I pay great tribute to her for the magnificent job she has done for industry, particularly the mining industry, in Western Australia. An employer from Kalgoorlie rang me the other day to tell me how his business has gone ahead in leaps and bounds with the assistance of a number of skilled migrants in the area of accounting and other related professions.

I will turn to the specific initiatives that the minister has brought forward with respect to skilled migration. The department has undertaken extensive promotional programs in Australia and overseas. These have been called expos. The expos in Australia have been held in a number of major centres, using the benefit of outreach programs. Overseas, we have had expos in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Chennai. More than 8,000 people who had the skills and backgrounds Australia is looking for attended these expos overseas. Almost 50 exhibitors, employers, state and territory governments and Commonwealth departments also attended. Expos have also been held in Australia in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth and there will be further expos this year. There will be another expo in Perth in November this year. That is a tremendous initiative on the part of the department to respond to this very significant problem.

As I say, Western Australia—if I may be so bold to say to senators from other states—has been the engine room and the beneficiary, with its mineral production, of the enormous growth in China. Without the department of immigration’s proper response and assistance, Western Australia would be nowhere near as prosperous or as viable in terms of responding to this enormous demand from East Asia and South-East Asia.

The department has also promoted regional officers, attaching to business centres in each state and territory. These people have been available in areas of high growth in regional Australia to provide specialised skill, support and information to employers as to how to meet their skills needs through skilled migration opportunities.

I will talk for a moment about the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme. The Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme allows employers in regional or low-population growth areas of Australia to fill with employees from overseas skilled positions that they cannot fill locally. This has been outstandingly successful in Western Australia, as I have said. By being located in the regions, the regional certifying bodies are best placed to consider the skills needed and the occupations that should be approved for their regions. These certifying bodies are regional investment boards, chambers of commerce and regional officers of state and territory departments. Again I underline the fact that the states have been very willing and sensible participants in partnering the Commonwealth with respect to skilled migration from overseas. Regional Australia is defined as being any part of Australia except Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne and Perth.

A further initiative has been the regional 457 temporary business long stay visa. Business visa sponsorship allows employers to sponsor a specified number of skilled workers for temporary entry to work in their businesses. To ensure that only skilled workers are recruited there are minimum skill and salary levels. In addition to ensuring that only skilled people are accepted under this arrangement, the minimum salary also discourages any attempt to exploit overseas workers and reinforces the skilled nature of their work.

A further initiative has been the promotion and enhancement of the skilled independent regional provisional visa. The SIR visa allows skilled people who fall marginally short of the general skilled migration pass mark to have three years of temporary residence in Australia provided they are prepared to live and work in regional Australia for at least two years. SIR visa holders can apply for permanent residency after two years if they have been employed for at least 12 months in regional Australia. The options open to them include the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visa, the state or territory nominated independent visa or the state or territory sponsored business owner visa. SIR visas are available to migrants intending to settle anywhere in Australia except the non-regional areas as mentioned above.

A further initiative has been the subclass 137 visa—the skilled state or territory nominated independent visa. The skilled state or territory nominated independent visa enables state and territory governments to nominate applicants for migration who are willing to settle where the skills are in demand. I am given to understand that this has been a very popular visa. Again I underline the fact that here the states have seen an opportunity and, with the assistance of the Commonwealth, we have worked in partnership to solve a very serious problem.

From 1 November 2005 the trade skills training visa has allowed overseas nationals to undertake high-quality trade skills training by doing an apprenticeship in regional Australia on a full fee paying basis. After finishing their training these visa holders can apply for a suite of existing regional migration visas. And so it goes on: working holiday visas, concessions for temporary protection and humanitarian visa holders, and a skill-matching database also assists in identifying people with the appropriate skills. Can I close by paying tribute to the department, its officers and the minister for the work that they have done in this difficult area.