Visa changes will worsen jobs and skills shortages, hospitality bodies warn
The nation’s peak hospitality bodies warn the Federal Government’s moves to restrict Working Holiday Makers and continue twelve-month delays to process skilled visas will hurt the Australian economy.
“Targeting working holiday makers makes no logical sense – they are a motivated and mobile workforce who help fill seasonal work, especially in the regions,” Australian Hotels Association CEO Stephen Ferguson said.
“The lottery for second-and-third year working holiday makers will create skewed outcomes.
“In the third year, only one in six can win a ticket.
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“This will do nothing but stop people undertaking six months remote work in their second year. It will distort the supply of essential workers in remote and regional Australia.”
Accommodation Australia CEO James Goodwin said in regards to skilled visas, the industry was concerned the Government’s changes further de-prioritises a sector already suffering from a chronic skills shortage.
“It is ridiculous that a skilled occupation like a chef can take up to 12 months to process – there are 7000 chef and cook vacancies in Australia right now,” AA CEO James Goodwin said.
“The hotel industry needs migration due to chronic workforce and skills shortages – we simply can’t fill all the vacancies locally now – and it’s only going to get worse.
“What’s lost in all this talk about migration numbers is that fundamentally Australia as a nation has a huge workforce challenge here.
“It will now be harder for hotels to access the workers we need and the changes will increase competition in an already tight labour market,” Mr Goodwin said.
