Although the current economic crisis will mean redundancies and financial losses for some industries, the consulting engineering industry remains relatively stable, with members of the ACEA reporting ongoing work remains steady and the skills shortage continues to be a problem.
There is a current estimated shortage of 28,000 engineering professionals in Australia, and given that the Australian Government is responding to the financial crisis by bringing forward expenditure of the Building Australia's Future (BAF) fund and injecting capital into residential and commercial buildings and infrastructure the ACEA remains concerned that there are not enough engineers to complete the work in the short term.
Megan Motto, the ACEA's CEO said, "The need to be able to bring in highly skilled highly paid professionals from overseas is the best short term strategy to help Australian consulting firms deliver the ongoing projects.
"The Deegan Report's first recommendation states that Subclass 457 visa holders should have the same terms and conditions of employment as all other employees in the workplace. The ACEA supports this premise entirely - However most of the subsequent 65 recommendations listed within the report are in complete contrast with this recommendation Motto said.
"The same terms and conditions as other employees in the workplace does not entail having employer-paid income protection insurance, paid levy's to enable the payment of health insurance and absconding costs, and being paid market rates when others are receiving an award rate.
"The recommendation that employers maintain income protection insurance for 457 visa employees for the duration of their employment is of particular concern to the ACEA, and we question how exactly this will increase the integrity of the scheme?
"For parity purposes employers would be obliged to pay income protection for all their employees if this recommendation is accepted and implemented. Large firms would be up for costs of millions of dollars annually."
The reality is that businesses will not be able to absorb these significant costs resulting in businesses that really need access to immediate high level professional skills will be unable to use the scheme at all, projects will have to cease, and firms will not be afforded the ability to grow.
"On average, two-thirds of firms across Australia are delaying or declining projects because they simply don't have the available staff, Motto said.
"I am greatly concerned about the continued shortages of professional and paraprofessional engineering staff in Australia, especially when governments continue to pursue infrastructure spending as a means of stimulating the economy, whilst simultaneously pursuing initiatives to tackle the problem of climate change. For both of these priority programs to go ahead it is critical that Australia has enough engineers to do the job.
"Governments and industry have to work together to provide long term solutions to the skills shortages. The ACEA's skills strategy in the short to medium term is to increase skilled migration and fast track temporary migration through the 457 visa process. In the past 12 months 40 per cent of large firms have had to recruit up to 10 per cent of their staff internationally to meet the growing Australian demand.
"We must not forget that skilled labour is critical to any project's success and without consulting engineers to design these projects, delays and cost blowouts will continue to impact on the success of Australia's ambitious infrastructure plans."
