Filling skills gaps for businesses

Migration is vital to Australia. I was recently appointed as the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration. The committee is undertaking an Inquiry into migration in regional Australia.

There are 60,000 jobs in regional Australia which local people can’t fill. We therefore need to encourage more people to go to settle in regional Australia.

The purpose of the inquiry is to learn from success stories and challenges of settlement of both humanitarian and skilled migrants in regional Australia. In order to increase regional migration, we must understand more about what attracts people to the regions and the factors that determine whether migrants stay over the long term.

When people in Berowra talk to me about migration they express support for the principle but have concerns about the effect it is having on our own community when infrastructure has not kept up. Supporting regional migration allows us to meet the skills shortages while allowing our infrastructure in the cities to catch up to the population growth we have experienced in recent years.

I would welcome people and organisations who have experience of regional migration as employers, service providers or migrants to make a submission to the inquiry.

For more information about the Inquiry visit: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Migration/ RegionalMigration