THOUSANDS OF short-term jobs are available in western Australia for skilled Irish workers, according to the regional government’s minister for training and workforce development, Peter Collier.
Mr Collier arrived in Dublin yesterday as part of a 12-day recruitment drive in Ireland and Britain to encourage unemployed skilled workers to consider moving to western Australia to work.
He said the aim of the recruitment drive was not to encourage Irish people to move to Australia for the long term but rather to spend a number of months or years there gaining experience before returning to Ireland.
“It does a tremendous amount to enhance the experience of those workers,” he said. “I’m not here to pinch your workers: I’m here to borrow them.”
With resource and infrastructure projects worth more than €164 billion planned for western Australia over the next 25 years, its government has predicted a shortfall of 150,000 workers by 2017.
“The only impediment to ensuring the success of the projects is labour force,” said Mr Collier.
Labour shortages exist most acutely in the healthcare, social assistance, construction, education and training sectors.
Mr Collier met Minister of State for Training and Skills Ciarán Cannon on Thursday and said they had reached agreement on how to proceed.
“His office and my office will be working over the months ahead to work towards an agreement that would assist Irish migrants to come to Australia and make it a much more seamless process,” said Mr Collier.
Western Australia, the capital of which is Perth, covers about one-third of Australia’s land mass and has a population of 2.2 million, 10 per cent of the national total.
More information can be found at migration.wa.gov.au.