13 September 2012

IN response to Greens MP Adam Bandt’s move to restrict the use of enterprise migration agreements (EMAs), resource industry employer group AREEA has reiterated the important role of skilled migration programs in securing projects and future jobs in Australia.

Bandt’s Protecting Local Jobs (Regulating Enterprise Migration Agreements) Bill 2012 proposes a range of restrictions and regulations on the use of the skilled migration policy, but AREEA executive director, industry, Minna Knight says such provisions are ‘unnecessary and ill-informed’.

“There are many myths and mistruths in public and political discourse about how the resource industry uses skilled migration. The truth is skilled migration is a very small, but very important part of Australia’s overall skills picture,” Ms Knight says.

“To date only one Enterprise Migration Agreement has been granted within the resource industry, and that was only after the company presented a compelling case that its project would employ many thousands of Australian workers and provide training opportunities for 2000 more.

“The introduction of legislative measures to place further regulatory burdens on resource employers is unnecessary and misses the point of the EMA program.

“The existing parameters of the EMA program already ensure the vast majority of job opportunities go to Australians and skilled migrants are only used for temporary positions to get projects built on time and on budget.”

Ms Knight highlights that employment growth in the resource industry has well outstripped predictions made by the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce (NRSET) in June 2010. The government panel had forecast that employment in the resource industry would grow at an average of 13,000 jobs per year, but instead growth is higher than 32,500 jobs per year.

“The resource industry has implemented a wide range of workforce development, planning and recruitment strategies to ensure Australian workers and local economies are the main beneficiaries of large projects,” Ms Knight says.

“The industry works closely with federal and state government entities to deliver a number of important programs of direct relevance to the NRSET’s terms of reference. But despite industry and government’s best efforts, some employers do need access to skilled migrants to temporarily supplement their workforces.

“The Greens bill not only ignores these important facts, but instead seeks to add further regulatory burdens to employers who are seeking access to skilled labour markets.

“Programs such as EMAs are vital to ensuring projects of national significance are delivered on time and on budget so they can provide economic and employment benefits for decades to come.

“AREEA’s position is that the bill introduced by Mr Bandt be opposed, given safeguards to protect local jobs already exist and such restrictions could ultimately threaten the viability of large resources projects.”

AREEA’s submission to the Senate Inquiry on the Greens Bill will be available to media once made public by the Senate.

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Click here to read AREEA’s submission.