Australia's permanent skills shortage isn't an economic problem—it's a policy failure, according to Sustainable Population Australia, which argues the government keeps adding the wrong jobs to the skilled migration list.
In a new analysis, the organization argues that Australia's skilled occupation list has become a tool for importing cheap labour rather than addressing genuine skills gaps.
Here's the core argument: If Australia genuinely had a shortage of certain workers, wages in those occupations would rise as employers compete for scarce talent. But many occupations on the "skills shortage" list have stagnant wages, suggesting the shortage is artificial—created by employers unwilling to pay market rates for local workers.
Instead of raising wages, industries lobby government to add their occupations to the skilled migration list. This imports workers from overseas, often at lower pay rates, which keeps wages suppressed and ensures the "shortage" continues. Rinse and repeat.
The classic example: chefs. Hospitality has claimed a chef shortage for years. Chefs are on the skilled occupation list. Yet wages haven't risen significantly, working conditions remain poor, and young Australians keep leaving the industry. Importing more chefs doesn't fix the underlying problem—it just maintains the status quo.
Similar patterns appear in nursing, aged care, agriculture, and construction trades. Industries cry shortage, government opens migration pathways, wages stay flat, and the shortage persists.
What should be on the list? Sustainable Population Australia argues the list should be limited to occupations where Australia genuinely lacks training capacity—highly specialized medical fields, certain engineering disciplines, or emerging technology roles where local expertise doesn't yet exist.
What shouldn't be on the list: occupations where Australia has training systems and qualified workers, but employers won't pay competitive wages or improve working conditions to attract them.
The political dimension is thorny. Business groups want migration as a pressure valve for labour costs. Unions want local jobs protected and wages rising. Regional areas genuinely struggle to attract workers regardless of pay. And migrants themselves are caught in the middle, sometimes exploited through visa conditions that tie them to specific employers.
Mate, if the skills shortage never ends, maybe it's because someone benefits from it never ending. Australian workers deserve jobs with fair pay. Migrants deserve not to be used as a wage suppression tool. And businesses need to accept that competitive wages are part of operating costs, not a problem government should solve with migration policy.
