Rob Breumelhof
Active Member
Treasurer Wayne Swan is set to allow thousands more migrants to settle in Australia to alleviate the skills shortage in the mining sector and boost the Budget bottom line.
Under pressure from the resources sector and his Treasury bureaucrats, the Treasurer is expected to lift the annual intake of permanent migrants by at least 5000.
Almost all of them would be skilled migrants. Forecast cuts in official interest rates - which are expected to boost the construction sector - and signs the unemployment rate has stabilised around 5.2 per cent have combined to provide Mr Swan with the economic conditions necessary to justify the move. It will also assist Mr Swan's efforts to deliver a Budget surplus next financial year.
Since taking office, the Labor Government has adjusted the annual migrant intake in response to the state of the economy. Before the global financial crisis, Mr Swan planned to lift the total migrant intake to 190,000. This would have boosted Government coffers by an estimated $3 billion, of which $1 billion would have gone to the States in GST revenue. But that intake allocation was slashed in 2009-10 by more than 21,000 in a move the Government conceded would cost it more than $400 million.
Migrant numbers were pushed up last year to 185,000 despite Prime Minister Julia Gillard's concerns about a "big Australia" and Opposition pressure for immigration cuts. There is support within Treasury to eventually take the total migrant intake to a record 230,000 because of labour shortages in the mining and construction sectors. The increase would provide labour to businesses crying out for workers in WA and Queensland and keep a lid on wages growth. Any increase would be driven by the skilled migrant intake, which now stands at a record 125,850.
By increasing economic activity such as retail sales and housing construction, the lift in migrant numbers would help safeguard Mr Swan's planned Budget surplus.
Under pressure from the resources sector and his Treasury bureaucrats, the Treasurer is expected to lift the annual intake of permanent migrants by at least 5000.
Almost all of them would be skilled migrants. Forecast cuts in official interest rates - which are expected to boost the construction sector - and signs the unemployment rate has stabilised around 5.2 per cent have combined to provide Mr Swan with the economic conditions necessary to justify the move. It will also assist Mr Swan's efforts to deliver a Budget surplus next financial year.
Since taking office, the Labor Government has adjusted the annual migrant intake in response to the state of the economy. Before the global financial crisis, Mr Swan planned to lift the total migrant intake to 190,000. This would have boosted Government coffers by an estimated $3 billion, of which $1 billion would have gone to the States in GST revenue. But that intake allocation was slashed in 2009-10 by more than 21,000 in a move the Government conceded would cost it more than $400 million.
Migrant numbers were pushed up last year to 185,000 despite Prime Minister Julia Gillard's concerns about a "big Australia" and Opposition pressure for immigration cuts. There is support within Treasury to eventually take the total migrant intake to a record 230,000 because of labour shortages in the mining and construction sectors. The increase would provide labour to businesses crying out for workers in WA and Queensland and keep a lid on wages growth. Any increase would be driven by the skilled migrant intake, which now stands at a record 125,850.
By increasing economic activity such as retail sales and housing construction, the lift in migrant numbers would help safeguard Mr Swan's planned Budget surplus.
