Hospitality venues warn worker shortage will deepen if immigration is slashed
Australia’s hospitality sector is sounding the alarm over worsening workforce shortages, warning that political promises to cut immigration could cripple the industry’s recovery and growth.
Restaurateur Amanda Scott, owner of Kedron Farm House in Brisbane, said the industry has become increasingly reliant on skilled immigrant labour as fewer Australians pursue careers in cookery. “It’s such a disincentive to go into restaurants these days because it’s so complicated — you have to be a visa expert, a payroll expert, an immigration expert,” she told the SMH.
Scott attributed part of the decline in local interest to the “Gordon Ramsay effect”, where hospitality is viewed as harsh and unwelcoming. As a result, many kitchens now depend on international chefs — but red tape is making the process of hiring them near impossible.
She said skilled visa applications can take years and cost upwards of A$8,000, noting that, “It was successful until this year, but now something's happened with both sides of politics using this as an election ploy.”
Café entrepreneur Philip Di Bella echoed those concerns, saying recent limits on international student working hours had already exacerbated staffing issues.
Student visa work restrictions, lifted in 2022, were reintroduced in 2023, capping work at 24 hours per week.
“The international students didn't take all the jobs and cause unemployment,” Di Bella said. “If they do cap international students and migrants, it will have a big effect.”
Australian Hotels Association chief executive Stephen Ferguson warned that proposed cuts to skilled migration by the Coalition — up to 100,000 fewer foreign workers annually — would severely damage productivity. “In a labour-intensive industry like hospitality, a reduction in available workers will cause a severe downturn in productivity,” he said.
For migrants, the system can be equally punishing. Venezuelan accountant Jose Guzman waited 10 years for his visa, facing multiple rejections and delays. “We had anxieties and worries because we couldn’t go and buy a car, we couldn’t buy a house,” Guzman said.
The Department of Home Affairs has been contacted for comment.
Jonathan Jackson, 17th April 2025
