Barnaby Joyce says Australia needs foreign workers now more than ever to plug major labour shortages but has warned aspiring migrants not to aim for Sydney.
The Deputy Prime Minister’s call comes after leading economists called for Australia’s migrant intake to increase to 190,000 a year.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has aimed even higher, saying he anticipates bringing in 235,000 migrants every year within the next few years.
Mr Joyce on Tuesday said Australia needed migrant workers to do the jobs Australians wouldn’t.
“We need the labour. We need people to do the work in abattoirs, fruit picking, the jobs Australians won’t do,” Mr Joyce told Nine Radio.
“(But) we’ve got to say that if you want to come to Australia, you’ve got to live in Tamworth, not Sydney. Sydney is full,” Mr Joyce said.
“Sydney does not need more people, regional towns do.
“To make our economy work we have to export goods. We have to make ourselves as strong as possible as quickly as possible … To do that we have got to get the regional areas humming with exports.”
The call comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrisons slashed Australia’s migrant intake from 190,000 to 160,000 in 2019 in order to tackle the impact of increasing populations in congested cities.
The government’s intergenerational report released mid last year assumed a return to an intxjmtzywake of 190,000 people per year in 2023-24.
Mr Frydenberg in December sought to allay fears of wage cuts, saying migration could climb alongside wages.
“I don’t see it as a binary choice between having a sensible, measured immigration program … as well as getting a tighter labour market and putting the policies in place that drive real wages up,” he said.
