‘Disappointing’: Header drivers and truck drivers not among 100 jobs added to WA’s skilled migration list

Bureaucratic red tape has left the State’s $11 billion agricultural sector out in the cold in a “shake-up” to WA’s skilled migration program to bolster worker numbers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many industries are celebrating the addition of a further 100 occupations to WA’s skilled occupation list, header drivers, machinery operators, shearers and truck drivers are nowhere to be seen. It has sparked outrage in the sector, which is staring down its third bumper harvest — forecast to tip 20 million tonnes — 1000 header drivers and 500 truck drivers short. The State Government claims its hands were tied, with the occupations able to be added to the list dictated by the Commonwealth’s occupation list, which only included “skilled workers”. “This means WA cannot include what the Commonwealth regards as semiskilled and unskilled occupations, such as truck drivers, agricultural workers, drillers, train drivers and care sector workers,” a State Government spokesman said. “Farm machinery operator, for example, is classified as a semi-skilled occupation, so cannot be part of the Skilled Migration Occupation List.” Agricultural region MP and Wickepin farmer Steve Martin said it was “disgraceful” and “appalling” the agricultural sector’s pleas for workers had fallen on deaf ears. “I think it’s really, really disappointing for the ag sector,” he said. “The (agriculture) industry has been vocal and loud for a long time trying to raise this as an issue. And it’s a long list, not five or six jobs. It’s a long list and we’re still not on it. “The trucking sector have been screaming out for staff, CBH have got record tonnes that they need to get to port and they’re having issues with truck drivers. Farmers are going to have issues with truck drivers this harvest and the list just takes no notice. It’s extraordinary.” Of the jobs added — bringing the total list to 276 occupations — 46 were for the health industry, with vehicle painters, community and youth workers, hairdressers and butchers among the non-medical jobs added. WAFarmers grains section president and Williams farmer Mark Fowler said farmers were “stuck between a rock and a hard place,” having no choice but to work longer hours amid crippling labour shortages to get crops off. “We’re looking down the barrel of another difficult labour situation for harvest,” he said. “That has to put some pressure on the safety situation — that fatigue.” He said the grains industry had been “pushing for recognition on a Federal level” for years and hoped the State Government would champion their cause for operators to be reclassified and therefore added to the WA list. Premier Mark McGowan said next week’s Australian Jobs and Skills Summit on September 1-2, would provide him “further opportunity” to ask the Commonwealth to consider a broader range of occupations to meet the demand for workers in WA. The sweeping reforms — which will be implemented over the next month — will include waiving the $200 application fees and the need for long-term employment contracts, plus reducing work experience and English requirements. Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery said training local residents to work in priority skilled areas remains “our number one approach in the long-term”. In addition, WA’s allotment for the State Nominated Migration Program in 2022-23 has been nearly tripled to 8140, a move that comes after Premier Mark McGowan wrote to new Immigration Minister Andrew Giles asking for 10,000 spots earlier this year. Skilled migrants moving to regional WA will no longer need an employment contract at all. The current requirement that foreign workers prove they have $20,000 in the bank to cover resettlement costs — plus $10,000 for a spouse and $5000 per dependant — will also be watered down, replaced with a need only to demonstrate “sufficient funds appropriate to their application”. Added to the WA Skilled Migration Occupation List Medical Non-Medical