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Help! We need some bodies, ACT Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Dr Christopher Peters says the world is facing an international skills crisis that Canberra can’t ignore. “The numbers are quite significant, about 47 per cent of Canberra’s working community are baby boomers and we’re going to need somewhere between 120,000-150,000 to replace these people,” he says. “If Canberra’s population doesn’t grow then the skills shortage will increase.” The ACT Government is all for skilled migration to Canberra, in fact, in 2006 it started a program to encourage it called “Live in Canberra”. This program gets about $200,000 a year in government funding and an equal part from the private sector, taking out advertisements at Floriade and the $2000 logo emblazoned on the hull of the ACT’s only entry in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race – an interesting marketing move in promoting a land-locked city with a lake beset by algae. Live in Canberra operates out of the Chief Minister’s office, so it’s impossible to get figures on how much staffing costs because the people who work on it are employed to do lots of things – aside from visiting the UK and South Africa in the name of migrant research. In May and June this year they will
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(not just any bodies!) THE population of our nation is a hot topic with the 2010 Intergenerational Report predicting Australians to number 36 million by 2050, but with Canberra’s limited water supply and ever-increasing housing issues, should we be rethinking the migration call out? ELERI HARRIS reports... visit multiple career expos in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth to tout the benefits of living in Canberra. Simon Kinsmore, ACT Government Communications and Engagement senior manager, says skilled migration is on the rise, but acknowledges that it is impossible to judge the impact the Live in Canberra program really has on professional relocation. “It’s a bit bold to say the Live in Canberra program is responsible for population increase or meeting need for skilled workers,” he says. “The proof of the pudding is in the net migration figures and population growth, but whether we can claim all those is debatable. “Our website gets about 12,000 unique visits a month and the database of people who’ve arrived in the last month stands at around 1200 people.” Dr Peters argues that while the success rate of Live in Canberra cannot
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Chris Peters... Zed Seselja... there’s no choice. housing issues. be evaluated, the program should be ramped up to meet growing demand for tradies and technical professionals. “Live in Canberra is a good start, but we’re going to have to gear it up or Canberra will face a skills crisis. “There are those entering the workforce now, like graduates, but that alone will meet less than half of our skills requirement. “The only other options are to encour-
age older people to remain in the workforce or to import people from overseas with the right skills.” Live in Canberra is mostly focused on Sydney right now because the majority of people coming here are from the western suburbs of the nation’s most populous city, but Peters thinks the program should be targeting international markets; workers from South Africa and the UK who are most easily pushed through the immigration system because they have transferable qualifications and already speak English. But Peters agrees, with an increasingly narrowing housing market, Canberra is in a catch 22. “We’re flat out building houses and apartments, but there still not enough to keep up with demand and not enough people to build them and there aren’t enough houses to put people in who move here either,” he says. Opposition Leader Zed Sesilja says,
while the Liberals are not opposed to increasing Canberra’s population, limited housing creates serious problems with any projected population intake. “I haven’t seen any compelling evidence to confirm that it’s [Live in Canberra] been particularly successful. “I really do believe that because they have so neglected housing affordability it has made it more difficult to attract people to the ACT than would ordinarily be the case.” Economist Ric Hingee is one of Live in Canberra’s most vocal critics, arguing that even if Canberra’s environment could support more people, the methods used by the program are unmeasurable and lack transparency. “If the system is working I don’t have a problem, but my problem is finding out if it is working,” he says. “They [the Government] are elusive about the costs and figures of people who have come who are actually working – not just children and family members. “There are no figures given to how long these people stay.” Hingee says Canberra would be better served by funding directed towards civic improvements. “If you make it worthwhile making it worth coming to Canberra by making it better, people would come here of their own accord – you wouldn’t have to go out shopping for them,” he says.
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