MARLES WARNS OF WAIT FOR WORKERS
IT will take months before migration returns to normal, Australia’s Acting Prime Minister has cautioned, as businesses cry out for help to fill labour shortages that are now driving up food prices.
In an interview with News Corp Australia, Richard Marles said expanding microcredentials to quickly train workers to fill specific gaps for employers would be part of the new government’s immediate plan to ease workforce pressures.
And Mr Marles, who is also the member for Corio, said Victoria would again be Australia’s advanced manufacturing heartland as Labor pushed to revitalise the industry with $15bn in government support and skilled workers educated in fee-free TAFE courses.
The number of foreign students in Victoria has crashed from about 180,000 prepandemic to 84,000 now, while the number of working holidaymakers nationwide was fewer than 31,000 in April, down from 135,000 in mid-2019.
This has put extreme pressure on industries, including hospitality and agriculture, with
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano warning workforce shortages were contributing to higher fruit and vegetable prices.
Queen Victoria Market trader Nancy Policheni pointed to price rises over the past year including iceberg lettuces increasing from $2 to $5; potatoes up from $2.50 to $3.50 a kilogram; broccoli up from $3.50 to $5.50 a kilogram; and mushrooms going from $9 to $12-14 a kilogram.
Mr Marles said the new government
wanted migration to “get back to normal as soon as possible”.
“But it’ll be months before we get to a point where we have the same number of people coming in,” he said.
Victorian Tourism Council Industry chief Felicia Mariani said key business sectors had faced endemic labour problems for a long time that was masked by “the influx of backpackers and international students and 457 visa holders”.
Mr Marles said a key lesson from the pandemic was the government’s failure to train enough Australians to fill areas of need in the workforce. He said TAFE needed to be celebrated and encouraged more in schools.
“For a whole lot of kids, this is a really good option – it’s not plan B, it’s plan A,” he said.
Micro-credentials were also part of the solution to help workers quickly shift into new roles, as long as the training put them on a pathway to more substantial qualifications.
Mr Marles said reversing a “lost decade of productivity” would also drive up wages and help alleviate the cost of living pressure facing families.
He pointed to the end of the automotive industry that had left Victoria without thousands of secure, well-paid jobs, saying Labor was focused on “revitalising Australian industry”. “That doesn’t happen overnight but the job starts overnight,” Mr Marles said.