Taskforce says employers must be able to access foreign workers

A Federal Government-backed taskforce examining looming skills shortages in the mining sector says the industry faces a skills shortage of 36,000 workers by 2015 and says employers must be able to access foreign workers to fill the gap.

A report from the Government’s National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce – which included members from industry, government and the unions – has recommended improving employers’ access to foreign workers under temporary visas to help combat the looming skills crisis.

The Taskforce found there are currently about 75 advanced major resources projects with a combined value of $109.6 billion in the pipeline, plus 286 less advanced projects with a combined value of $249.9 billion.

The jobs created by these projects will see mining employment grow 5% over the next five years, putting huge pressure on the pool of available skilled tradespeople.

As well as recommending improvements to training and education programs, the Taskforce said that employers must be able to access overseas workers much more easily than now occurs.

The report says the Department of Immigration should finalise applications for temporary visas within five working days and also recommends that the Government introduce “Enterprise Migration Agreements” for mega resource projects, which would allow employers to more easily access temporary foreign workers during the construction phase of a project.

“As part of these agreements, the Australian Government should provide for pre-qualification of skilled occupations to create greater efficiency and certainty to project proponents during the critical construction phase,” the report says.

The report’s recommendations have been welcomed by most of the industry’s stakeholders, including the Minerals Council of Australia and the Chambers of Commerce in the resource-rich states of Western Australia and Queensland.

However, the Taskforce’s recommendations come as Prime Minister Julia Gillard continues to focus on her key policy of “sustainable population”, as stark contrast from the “Big Australia” mantra of the former Prime Minster Kevin Rudd.

Steve Shepherd, the president of the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association, says the current population debate is concerning as it is driven by politics rather than a well thought out response to the issue of skills shortages.

“I think the problem is that people look for simple solutions to a very complex problem,” he says.

“I think that the immigration debate is always a politically sensitive one, and can be caught up in quite short-term government cycles. You only need to see the scare campaigns that go on around every election campaign on refugees.”

Shepherd says governments need to the think more carefully about how Australia will compete with countries around the world which are also suffering skills shortages.

He says that while skilled migration schemes have worked well, skills shortages could become so acute that Australia may need to eventually consider bringing in migrants with lower skills and training them locally.

“If those skills don’t exist, we still need to bring the right people in.”

He also says education and training need to be central part of any response.

“While immigration is a response, I think the skills shortages we see, whether they be in resources or another sector, is that these problems are not unique to Australia. Therefore, you’ve got to say if all these other countries are having the same problems, what happens if we are all fishing in the same pond?”