Damian Drum (Murray, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Turnbull government is supporting the needs of regional Australia through its skilled migration program, including the new temporary skills shortage, or TSS, visa, enabling regional employers to fill essential vacancies faster than ever before. Introduced by the coalition government in March of this year, the TSS is one of the many temporary and permanent visa programs designed to support the labour needs of regional employers where Australian workers cannot be found. The Australian government has introduced significant changes to speed up this process for TSS visa applications. In April of this year, we found that 75 per cent of the TSS applications that were finalised were done so in just 11 days, and 90 per cent of those applications were processed in 18 days.

Throughout the seat of Murray, this is incredibly important. We have in Murray a whole raft of local Australian businesses that are in desperate need of additional workers in a raft of categories of employment that they are unable to fill with Australian workers, so they are looking overseas. One of Shepparton's most iconic businesses, Furphy engineering, are in need of welders, turners and fitters, and steel fabricators. Gino D'Angelo over at Kyabram, with JNR Engineering, also needs steel fabricators. They are making the most-advanced laser-grading equipment throughout Australia. We need food technicians for the various food-processing plants throughout the Goulburn Valley. They are unable to attract food processors. You would think that working in laboratories would be a job that many young Australians would be keen to pursue, but it's still very, very hard to get people into these fields. Motor and diesel mechanic positions are very difficult to fill, and some of Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley's most prestigious vehicle operators and garages are really struggling to find the workers that they need. Truck drivers, meat process workers and aged-care workers are other areas where we're struggling to fill the opportunities that are available for employment throughout the Goulburn Valley. There's a raft of these different categories of employment, and yet we are unable to fill those jobs without having to look overseas.

It's fantastic news that we are trying to make it easier. We've still got more work to do to make it easier for Australian businesses to get the people that they need to take their businesses further forward and, therefore, employ more and more Australians. Well done on the work so far, but we've got a lot of work to do in this area.