Home » Premiers want greater say on immigration as they push for more money for infrastructure

Premiers want greater say on immigration as they push for more money for infrastructure

“NSW is expected to face a shortfall of 73,000 workers in the aged care and disability sector by 2030,” the state said in its submission to the migration review.

“Employment in hospitals is projected to grow by 17 per cent by 2026, while there is projected to be a national shortfall of 11,400 general practitioners by 2030.”

In its separate submission, the Queensland government warned that its state had the highest population growth but too little input into the migration intake.

“Currently, there is little state and territory visibility into how interim and final allocations are determined by the Australian government,” it said.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles signalled the changes to the visa system on Monday by saying the government would reveal its migration strategy “shortly” and saying it would lead to a fairer system.

The new migration strategy will respond to a review led by former public service chief Martin Parkinson, now the chancellor of Macquarie University, who delivered the review in April after being asked to study the problem in October last year.

The May budget forecast net overseas migration of 400,000 in the 2023 financial year and predicted this would fall to 315,000 in the 2024 financial year, but the actual numbers show the intake is ahead of the forecasts due to large numbers of students and temporary workers coming to Australia.

The annual intake over the year to September 30 was close to 500,000, said former immigration department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi, an independent commentator on the issue.

“To get the net overseas migration down, the government must further tighten student policy and temporary graduate policy,” he said.

Palaszczuk has strongly criticised federal Transport Minister Catherine King, who represents the Victorian electorate of Ballarat, for cancelling funding to Queensland projects in last week’s overhaul of the federal infrastructure program.

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“My message is to the Victorian minister Catherine King, the federal Victorian minister who doesn’t understand Queensland: come up to Queensland and have a look, have a discussion with us, and fund Queensland infrastructure projects,” she said.

Minns said NSW citizens contributed more than a third of federal taxation revenue and deserved more support on road and rail projects when the population was growing.

“There are a lot of things that are in abeyance at the moment that we do need clarity on, and NSW taxpayers deserve their fair share,” the NSW premier said on Monday.

“NSW taxpayers contribute an enormous amount of money to the Commonwealth budget, but we need that back, particularly when you consider we’ve got the biggest population and we’ve got the biggest expected increase in the population in the coming two years.

“We need critical infrastructure to keep this state going, to keep the economy moving and that can only happen from the deeper pockets of the Commonwealth government.”

Allan said last week it was “incredibly frustrating” that Victoria would lose federal support for major projects including the faster rail service between Melbourne and Geelong, the Baxter rail extension at Frankston, and a highway bypass at Shepparton.

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