Four years later, training falls short

9th August 2021

When he was first elected in 2017, Premier Mark McGowan outlined what he thought was a huge problem.

He was outraged that  Perth businesses, and even Government Departments, were importing people from interstate and overseas to cover their workforce needs.

Mark McGowan was so outraged in fact that he made one of his first decisions in Government to ask the Prime Minister to remove Perth from the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.

The Scheme was put in place to allow employers to attract key workers from overseas, and was a lifeline for industry during the last mining boom of 2003 to 2014.

At the same time the Premier cut back the list of occupations for which employers in the state could access imported labour from 178 different jobs to just 18.

He slashed the Western Australian Skilled Migration Occupation List (WASMOL), which identified which skills can be imported, by a massive 90%. 

Health workers could still be imported, but jobs like those in engineering, agriculture and construction were dropped off the list. According to Mr McGowan they would all be filled by local workers, a premise that has been completely dispelled throughout the last two years. His “work out yonder” initiative may well be the greatest policy failure of his tenure to date. 

The Premier’s media release at the time said that “On day one in office, we ripped up the out-dated skilled migration list and delivered our commitment to keep WA jobs in WA”.

He also told us that "Our policy will ensure that, whenever possible, Western Australians will be given first preference on WA jobs. It doesn't make sense to fast-track workers from overseas when there are unemployed Western Australians who are capable of doing the work.”

Now these are worthy and supportable sentiments, and as an Opposition we all support jobs going to locals first if possible and deliverable.

But to be successful this policy obviously requires a good plan to make sure all the required workers with the required skills are available in Western Australia.

It is now four years later and given that most training courses in Western Australia take four years or less to complete, now is obviously an ideal time to assess how the McGowan jobs and skills plan of 2017 is working out. If he was true to his word, we should now be seeing local Western Australians filling those jobs he identified years ago.

But hang on, four years later the McGowan Government is hosting a “skills summit”, which it says is designed to be “an opportunity for business leaders and other industry players to work collaboratively to develop immediate and longer term strategies to address skills needs impacting the Western Australian economy.”

Skills needs? Impacting the Western Australian economy?

Surely after four years of a Government that was so focused on skills, there would not be a shortage damaging our economy?

The very fact that a skills summit was required at all after four years of McGowan management of skills and training is surely a red flag.

It is telling that apprentice and trainee numbers declined in the first three years of the McGowan Government. Commencements – that is new apprenticeships and traineeships -  have only rebounded from historically low levels in the last financial year. 

Completions in much needed skills continue to languish, which is understandable if starts dropped from 2017 to 2019. Skilled trades worker numbers will only pick up in a few years time when last year’s increased intake finally graduate. 

So what is Mr McGowan right now trumpeting as improving the situation?

In a complete backflip with double twist on his first action in Government in 2017, he has expanded the “State Nominated Migration Program”. He should have been on the Australian diving team at the Olympics.

In a massive admission that he got it completely wrong in 2017, Mr McGowan has recently added back 114 types of workers onto the general list to add to the 137 he added onto the graduate list.

In doing so he acknowledged that lots of positions currently on offer are not being met.

We are told that this new reincarnated system of importing jobs has resulted in thousands of expressions of interest from workers around the country, which might help in years to come but is of less value with half of Australian population in lockdown at the moment.

Of course, this is Mr McGowan’s second backflip.

Back in October 2019 he reversed his decision to remove Perth as a region from the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme.

That makes two admissions of failure, and four years of obviously unsuccessful activity in the interim, and we still have to have an emergency summit to address a current skills shortage.

I wonder how many wrongs the Government needs to ultimately make it right?