Podcasts Other The Mike Hosking Breakfast Mike's Minute: Is the Government finally waking up to our labour crisis?

Mike's Minute: Is the Government finally waking up to our labour crisis?

Published: Oct. 12, 2022, 8:31 p.m.

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In general, the Government seem to have got the memo on immigration.

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Another loosening was announced by Michael Wood yesterday. But I say in general because as we have discovered, this lot are a mixture of incompetent and Machiavellian.

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So, we have the skilled visa category reopening, about time. The parents visa being adjusted is not as big a deal.

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And we have "consultation\\u201c. Watch that, because it normally spells trouble. But we have consultation on a new uncapped and simplified points system. That, if it comes to anything, is the key.

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We have never seen a crisis the likes of which we face at the moment. Yes, as the Government keeps bleating, it\'s an issue in many parts of the world, but that doesn\'t excuse the fact they have insisted on making it harder than it needs to be.

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The chef decision just this week is all the evidence you need.

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They don\\u2019t get the real world. They don\\u2019t understand business, they don\'t like business, and they don\\u2019t listen to business. That\\u2019s why Gordon Ramsay would not have qualified to work in this country as a chef under their system.

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It\'s also why they keep making up stories about the number of offshore nurses applying to come here.

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Andrew Little has told us it\'s 400. It isn\'t. Michael Wood told us it\'s 300. It isn\'t. The real number is about a dozen. 12 have turned up and actually started work as a nurse.

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And don\'t forget nurses don\\u2019t get the same pathway to residency that many other professions get that we have deemed to be short of.

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The Government didn\\u2019t want to be here. They deluded themselves into thinking that locals could do all the work and when we cracked the old immigration door back open the world would flood in. They were wrong on both counts.

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The calculation is simple. Are we short of people? Yes. Are more people in the answer? Yes.

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There is pretty much work for anyone with a skill. So, the policy should be, welcome, come on in, grab an apron, a hammer, a pen, a desk, and get to work.

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It doesn\\u2019t have to be as hard and hopeless as they are making it.

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