The war on the CFMEU has coughed up a dividend.
The Albanese government is in the midst of creating a three-tier skilled migration system, with separate visa streams for low-paid care workers, highly paid professionals earning more than $135,000, and a “core” stream for workers earning between $70,000 and $135,000 where there is a skills shortage.
The government controversially excluded tradespeople from a fast-track scheme dedicated to workers earning more than $135,000. Instead, they need to apply through the more onerous “core” stream for migrants earning between $70,000 and $135,000.
But industry was alarmed to see that some key trades including plumbers and bricklayers were not guaranteed inclusion in the core stream, which will make up the bulk of visas granted in the program.
…A builder earning more than $135,000 will still be excluded from Labor’s fast-track, top-tier status, a major concession to trade unions.
So typical of Labor. Rich tradies will continue to be protected from import competition, while deplorable tradies will be smashed by it.
Of course, we should be importing neither; then we wouldn’t need to build these unproductive houses. Ipso facto, it won’t do anything to resolve the housing crisis.
If we cut immigration instead, labour resources would be redeployed to higher value-added sectors such as manufacturing, where productivity growth would deliver ongoing and sustainable real wage gains.
But such sense is like throwing fairy floss at a freight train these days.
Canberra has no intention of doing anything other than importing more people, more of the time, until the continent sinks under the strain.
