Great Southern deserves workforce shortage support

Federal Member for O’Connor, Rick Wilson MP, has called on the Albanese Government to support the Great Southern region in its application for a Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA).

The application was made by Regional Development Australia Great Southern WA (RDA) on behalf of 10 shires in the region. The DAMA is designed to support areas in addressing labour shortages by allowing employers to sponsor overseas workers.

Yet, recent correspondence from the Albanese Government has effectively dismissed the application in favour of a statewide agreement.

“The RDA has spent time, money and resources in building a comprehensive application to support 10 shires in the region in solving their workforce shortages,” Mr Wilson said.

“There were 126 applications unique to the Great Southern which the RDA recognised needed addressing in the region, just over 40 of those have been accepted in the statewide DAMA agreement.

“That means almost 80 occupations across those 10 shires remain unrecognised by the Department of Home Affairs, and therefore unable to be filled via visa pathways.”

The comments from the Albanese Government come despite there already being DAMA’s in the East Kimberley, South West, Goldfields and Pilbara regions.

“The Great Southern is a unique region, as are the other regions across WA” he said.

“The area has different labour challenges and workforce needs than other parts of Australia, which is the very purpose of which DAMA’s were intended to solve.

“Dismissing regional DAMA applications like this, and making it a state issue, is just lazy policy and shows a disregard for regional workforce shortages.”

Mr Wilson said he would continue to raise the issue with the Federal Government and support the application.

“We have real labour shortages in our Great Southern region and a DAMA would move us one step closer to solving part of the problem,” he said.

“We cannot sit by and let the Albanese Government ignore regional issues.”