Hospitality, health care and education lead 43 per cent jump in 457 visa granted in TasmaniaHospitality, health care and education lead 43 per cent jump in 457 visa granted in Tasmania
THE number of 457 visas granted to bring overseas workers to Tasmania has jumped more than 40 per cent as the state faces a skills crisis.
New figures from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection show the number of visas grantedin the first quarter of this financial year was up 43 per cent on a year earlier.
While numbers in Tasmania remain relatively small, the increase has mostly been seen in hospitality, health care and education.
Sixty 457 visas were granted by September 30 last year, a third of them for chefs or cooks.
Ten chefs had been brought to the state — up from zero the previous year — along with 10 cooks, a jump of 200 per cent.
The trend comes as the Tasmanian Hospitality Association warns of a shortage of 150 chefs across the state.
The association will run workshops next month explaining the visa process to employers desperate for a solution.
“We’re having to reach out as far as we can,” association general manager Steve Old told the Sunday Tasmanian.
“We’re trying to make sure our industry understands all the different options.”
About 50 hospitality workers are among 400 holding 457 visas and already working in Tasmania, the Immigration Department figures show.
Mr Old said department officials would be on hand at the workshops to explain an often complex and expensive process.
“If one of the things we can do is open the eyes of venue operators to getting chefs on these different visas, the numbers could go up,” he said.
“You can’t get qualified tradespeople with a click of your fingers — they’ve got to go through the apprenticeship process.”
Twenty medical positions were filled by visa workers, adding to the 40 GPs on 457s already in the state.
Australian Medical Association state president Tim Greenaway said better workforce planning and more training positions in public hospitals were needed to avoid temporary solutions.
“We need to train enough doctors for the future and we need to make the conditions for employment in this state just ballpark comparable to what’s available on the mainland,” Dr Greenaway said.
The increase in education was mostly due to the employment of university lecturers.
A Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) allows businesses to bring workers from overseas for up to four years if they can’t fill jobs with locals.
Source: The Mercury, David Beniuk, 31st January 2016
