AUSTRALIA'S intake of skilled migrants will be slashed by 18,500 over the next three months — 14 per cent of the annual intake — in a dramatic move to protect local jobs.
Less than a year after increasing the skilled migrant intake to record levels, the Rudd Government has responded to the deepening economic crisis by removing building and manufacturing trades from the list of workers Australia is seeking from overseas.
Bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal fitters will no longer get entry. The list of critical skills is now confined mainly to the health and medical, engineering and IT professions.
The cut reduces the skilled migrant intake for the 2008-09 financial year from 133,500 to 115,000.
The Government had already foreshadowed a reduction in skilled migrants — who form the bulk of the immigration intake — next financial year, with details to be announced in the May budget.
The decision to cut the number of skilled migrants now shows the Government's growing concern about ballooning unemployment, which in February rose from 4.8 per cent to 5.2 per cent.
The official forecast of a 7 per cent unemployment rate by mid next year is certain to be revised up in the budget.
The deep cut in skilled migrant numbers follows December changes that meant only migrants sponsored by an employer or in an occupation on the critical skills list could get a permanent visa. Almost half the visas granted in this category are to people already working in Australia.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans promised further paring back of the critical skills list if warranted. "The Government will remove occupations from the list if demand for those skills can be satisfied by local labour."
Senator Evans said the overwhelming message from business and industry "is that Australia still needs to maintain a skilled migration program but one that is more targeted so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs"
There were still shortages in sectors such as health care. The measures will enable industry to continue to get the skilled professionals needed "while protecting local jobs and the wages and conditions of Australian workers", Senator Evans said.
He added that the Government remained committed to a strong migration program. "Skilled migration plays a crucial role in stimulating the economy."
The cuts came as Mr Swan signed an international communique agreeing to "fight all forms of protectionism and maintain open trade and investment".
Finance ministers and treasurers from the Group of 20 large industrial and developing nations met in Horsham, south-west of London, to thrash out an agreement that committed them to "take whatever action is necessary until growth is restored" with the proviso that they kept their borders open.
"We will try to ensure that there is no intended or unintended trade protectionism," said the meeting's chair, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, speaking to reporters after the meeting.
Mr Swan told the ABC there had been little disagreement: "You didn't see that in the meeting today. It was a very encouraging outcome. I've been coming to a number of these meetings over the last six months or so and today I saw a resolve we haven't seen before."
Ministers agreed to boost their contributions to the International Monetary Fund to let it help countries that can no longer get credit.
The leaders of the G-20 nations including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will continue the negotiations in London on April 2. The global financial crisis will dominate Mr Rudd's first face-to-face meeting with US President Barack Obama next week.
Mr Obama yesterday singled out Australia as a country taking appropriate action in the face of the global economic crisis. "Kevin Rudd has taken similar steps (to stimulate the economy) in Australia," he said.
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