Welcome
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We have covered the future NT project horizon previously and it’s a very positive story. The challenge is very much how we are going to take advantage of that with the current skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workforce shortages facing us. It is a national problem, of course, but it will inevitably be more challenging in remote areas of the country where recruitment is difficult at any time. Training our own will always be top of the priority list but it is so competitive across all industries that the options will be exhausted relatively quickly. Poaching from interstate, whilst always actively pursued, hasn’t had a major impact over the years but in these times it’s an even more difficult task. Overseas recruitment has always been a fallback option which has produced good results. It’s unfortunate the Federal Government has extended its Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMA) beyond the NT to other areas of Australia, effectively watering down the advantage we had in addressing our remote location. If I take our own office as an example, I’m not sure the opportunity COVID provided to clear up the backlog of visa applications was grasped. We have 4 staff still in the queue. The emerging post-COVID environment has inevitably seen a surge in visa activity. However, if you haven’t already done so, it might be time to have a chat to a migration agent. |
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