Hospo industry calls for subsidies and easy access to cheap foreign labour
The Joint Standing Committee on Migration, which permits Australian businesses to easily access cheap foreign labour has made a series of recommendations to help businesses access overseas workers.
Macrobusiness has outlined the committee’s recommendations as:
- Significantly watering down or outright abolishing labour market testing rules, depending on the business.
- Massively expanding the range of roles listed on the skills shortage list.
- Cutting visa costs for employers, alongside accelerating visa approval times.
- Giving temporary foreign workers a sure fire pathway to permanent residency.
- Giving temporary foreign workers priority access to flights and hotel quarantine ahead of stranded Australians.
One of the first lobby groups to commend the recommendations was the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association of Australia (RCIAA).
Chief executive of RCIAA, Wes Lambert, claims these changes would help overcome the skills shortages currently being experienced by the hospitality industry saying, “The interim recommendations in the report set out a vision for the hospitality sector to help them get the skilled workers they need to keep tens of thousands of Australian workers in jobs.
“R&CA strongly believes that skilled migration should not become a political football and called upon all parties in the Parliament to support the interim report’s recommendations.”
At the same time, Mr Lambert is also calling for taxpayer subsidies designed to curtail the job losses of thousands of Australians once JobKeeper ends.
Mr Lambert believes these subsidies should go to the tourism industry, saying the stimulus provided by the Morrison government to that industry falls short in its duty of care.
“The JobMaker initiative has failed. That support should be given to tourism, the arts, aviation and hospitality — the sectors hit worst by COVID,” Mr Lambert said.
The assertion that these industries are hardest hit is backed up by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
A recent ABS report shows there were still 110,000, or 12 per cent, fewer payrolled employees in hotels, restaurants and cafes than before the pandemic began in Australia in March last year.
In an article written for The Australian, Chief executive of the Australian Hotels Association, Stephen Ferguson, has called for either more of a cash flow boost or staff retention payments once JobKeeper ends at the end of this month.
Irit Jackson, 24th March 2021
