The latest Access Economics report predicts a massive
290,000 shortfall in the labour force over the next five years, due to
retirements and lower number of youth. While construction and mining are the
two industry sectors being hardest hit by lack of labour print is also facing
increasing issues, as the fourth biggest manufacturing industry in the country.
Business is becoming increasingly frustrated by the government's
tightening of the 457 visa requirement, which was initially set up to provide a
rapid flow of labour to the country, but in the past year has seen a
significant slowdown due to the government increasing the amount of red tape.
That red tape has been introduced to try and eliminate rogue operators, but has
been hitting industry across the board.
Last month the director of Aprint in Hawthorn, Yu Tu Chuan,
also known as Dor Tu, became the first person in the country to be prosecuted
for breaching the workplace laws regarding foreign workers, he was fined $9240
and made to pay back $93,000 in wages and benefits the court found he had
withheld from his 457 workers.
The number of 457 visas jumped by 45 per cent in 2005-06
over the previous year, to almost 40,000, but slumped by 15 per cent in 2006-07
down to 34,000, due to the increased bureaucracy. It now regularly takes more
than three months for 457 visa approval.
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) is also calling on
the government to immediately lift the permanent annual migration numbers from
140,000 to 180,000, and to place the emphasis on skilled migration, over
humanitarian and family visas.
Australia's
labour shortage is compounded by similar shortages in other western countries,
in Japan some 33 million people, a third of its population, will be over 65 by
2009. European countries are likely to introduce a 'blue card' system soon,
similar to the US
green card, which will aim to attract workers in on a temporary basis, with the
carrot of a long term residency to attract staff.
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