A veteran builder has criticized the Albanian government for being “incompetent” by not prioritizing the migrant trade amid a housing shortage.
QHI GROUP chief executive Scott Challen is outraged that yoga instructors, specialist martial artists and dog handlers have been included in Jobs and Skills Australia’s preliminary list of priority skills when the country desperately needs more professionals.
The jobs on the list are classified into three categories: “sure” to be on the list, “sure” to not be on the list, and “query targets.”
Painters, roofers and stonemasons have been placed in a category that needs further consultation before being included or rejected by the government.
Those on the “confident” list are eligible for “fast track” visas, including those who earn more than $130,000 a year.
Challen, who has worked in the construction industry for more than 20 years, sees the list as a big joke in light of the government’s plan to build 1.2 million homes over the next 10 years to ease the national housing crisis. .
Veteran builder Scott Challen questioned the government over the migrant shortage and called Anthony Albanese “incompetent”.
Yoga instructors have been added to Australia’s skilled migrant list, while many trades need ‘additional consultation’
“What we are seeing now is pure and utter incompetence,” he said. yahoo.
“The entire industry says that because there was absolutely nothing in the federal budget but words to make it happen.”
Challen, owner of Smartkits Australia, Ezy Blox Living Concepts, Online Steel, Approval Masters and Queensland Home Improvements, believes the planned new homes will “never happen” and the government is not even on track to meet the target.
The businessman admitted that a big challenge with overseas business is that his qualifications are not always recognized in Australia.
Many international workers have to retrain when they arrive in the country and when they are allowed to work in the industry, their hours are restricted.
In response to the trade shortage, the Albanian government pledged $90 million in the 2024 budget to pay for 20,000 additional free TAFE places.
The government has planned to build 1.2 million homes over 10 years, but a draft list of priority skills from Jobs and Skills Australia does not prioritize professions such as painting, which would help them achieve this goal.
But BuildSkills Australia revealed in March that to keep the government’s target on track, an additional 90,000 construction workers were needed in just a few months.
BuildSkills head of research Rob Sobyra has presented the government’s draft list of immigration policies and cannot understand why businesses were not at the top of the list.
‘Does the world really need more yoga instructors right now? From the point of view of our social and economic priorities, it seems to us that we should really give priority to any skilled profession,” he stated.
Other trades that have been included for consultation are chefs, cooks, bakers, managers, IT workers, accountants and hairdressers.
A record 528,000 migrants arrived in Australia during 2022-23, but Treasury forecasts the number will fall to 395,000 in 2023-24 and decline further to 260,000 in the next financial year.
The permanent migration program will then be capped at just 185,000 places in 2024-25, with 132,200 places allocated to skills that “will help address Australia’s long-term skills needs”.