THE Immigration Department has admitted tertiary enrolments are failing to meet state and territory demands for graduates in mining, construction and nursing, despite an overhaul of the skilled migration system to meet the labour shortage.
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A SHORTAGE of skilled labour could limit development of south-west projects estimated at $8 billion, a skilled migrant program manager said this week.

The projects were expected to generate 4400 construction jobs and 800 ongoing permanent positions, Great South Coast Growth Through Skilled Migration project manager Phil Hoggan said, but the lack of labour in the region was a potential threat.
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IT should be a fine time to be a union leader in Australia. Having bankrolled Labor victories in every state and territory and ejected the evil anti-union conservatives from Canberra, the planets are aligned for a revival of union power under a Rudd Labor Government.
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Employers should implement workplace reforms to tackle declining employee numbers or risk losing their businesses, Dr Jackson told a conference in Launceston yesterday.

Speaking at the Employer of Choice conference, she said Tasmania would be the first state in Australia where there would be a greater loss of employees than entrants to the workforce.
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MANILA, Philippines – With the continued labor shortage foreseen in the next ten years, Australia said that it prefers thousands of skilled Filipino workers to fill up the 300,000 job vacancies in its southern region.

Kevin Foley, South Australia’s Deputy Premier and Minister for Industry and Trade, said he conveyed to Philippine Labor Secretary Marianito Roque that his region is targeting Filipinos to work in the medical, construction, electronics and service-oriented sectors.
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The Coalition today called on the Rudd Government to reject the calls of the CFMEU for unions to vet 457 visa sponsors.
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