The federal government’s latest economic update indicates Australia’s
financial recovery from the health crisis will rely heavily on overseas
migration.
But the Australian Industry Group – which represents
private business in sectors ranging from manufacturing, construction
and transport – says the current migration cap is too low to allow
businesses to bounce back.
In a submission to the Home Affairs
Department, AI Group chief executive Innes Willox urged the government
to increase the migration cap by 30,000 people for 2022.
“Ai
Group was disappointed with the reduction to a maximum of 160,000 places
in the annual permanent migration that was in place for 2020,” Mr
Willox said.
“This reduction was not warranted, and despite the
barriers to reaching this ceiling, we believe it should be returned to
190,000 places in the 2022/23 federal budget.”
Australia’s
engineering firms are expected to be particularly hard-hit by the
shortage of skilled migrant workers as the demand for engineers
outstrips the number of domestic engineering graduates.
Without
the usual stream of around 6000 overseas undergraduate engineering
students who are able to work for two years in Australia after
graduation, the industry is expected to suffer.
“Engineering is
an example of a sector that we will rely on during the Covid economic
recovery but which is experiencing ongoing and significant skill
shortages,” Mr Willox said.
The push to increase the intake of
migrant workers comes as Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar is set to
release an updated population statement on Monday.
The release
is expected to reveal a slow return to pre-pandemic population levels,
with population growth falling to its lowest level in Australia in more
than 100 years.
Mr Sukkar said the fall was largely caused by
“restrictions on international borders and the impact on net overseas
migration – typically the main source of Australia’s population growth”.
A boost to both the migration cap and skilled worker quota will be
essential to the recovery of Aussie business in the post-pandemic world,
according to the AI Group.
“The benefits of migration – and
especially permanent and long-term skilled migration – to national per
capita output and income present a compelling argument for restoring the
annual migration intake to its previous cap of 190,000,” Mr Willox
said.
“As Australia moves beyond the recovery period, following
the Covid-19 pandemic, any further retreat from globalisation and from
the global skills market will be even less appropriate.”
