As pressure mounts for migration cuts, business leaders warn on economic cost | The Business
The boss of Australia’s largest home builder Metricon boss Brad Duggan says while there’s been a 40 per cent fall in inquiries to build new homes and a drop in the migration intake could further dent demand, the real issue is finding skilled workers to build more homes. “I think it’s important to realise that trades, these are real professions …They’re not something that you can really acquire and become honed in on overnight. He said. Mr Duggan has been meeting with Australia’s housing minister on the issue and says he urges federal politicians to steer clear of emotive debates and look at the facts. “Let’s not focus on what is the popular solution, I understand why it might be the right political avenue to try and point to migration as being the driver of why we are where we are right now, but there are a lot of other systemic, more difficult factors that we need to lean into” Mr Duggan said.
Leora Healthcare founder and co-CEO Esha Oberoi is very concerned about any potential migration cuts. She runs an aged care and disabillity service company, which employs many migrants. “We employ close to 800 employees and over 45 per cent of them are on visas,” Ms Oberoi said.
Fight Centre CEO Graham Turner says the tourism sector is only marginally impacted by migration because it relies more heavily on visitors than migrants. But Mr Turner has long been of the view that population growth, including migration growth should be sustainable. He says “somewhere in that 200,000 to 300,000 a year range, which is more or less in the middle of the Labor Party’s proposals, is probably reasonable.”
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