The resources boom may force Australia to take in even greater numbers of skilled temporary migrants, and possibly at lower skill levels (and for shorter durations) than those migrants who currently come in on 457 visas for up to four years. I’m unsure if this is what the Chairman of Skills Queensland, Greg Kempton, has in mind, but he is clearly calling for a rethink of our current immigration policy. The Townsville Bulletin has reported this morning:

Mr Kempton said modifying the current immigration policy to employ short-term workers from other countries when local options had been exhausted was also required.

“The issue is that if we’re filling peaks, we probably don’t want the permanent population increases associated with that when demand declines and we still have the people but no jobs.

“We’re better to have a situation that allows for temporary skilled set solutions, then those people can move elsewhere.”

Yesterday Mr Kempton also noted that there are a projected 38,000 new jobs over the next few years associated with the resources boom:

AN unprecedented 38,000 jobs are expected to be created in Queensland in the next five years as the mining and resources boom takes hold.

The board of Skills Queensland yesterday met in Townsville to discuss ways to best tackle a predicted skills shortage born from the boom, that could threaten to undermine the region’s opportunities.

Skills Queensland chairman Greg Kempton said 38,000 jobs would be created predominantly in the resource sector by 2015, with the majority in central to North Queensland.

He forecast about half of the jobs would be in the construction sector, with drillers, miners, plant operators, concreters, truck drivers and machinists making up the bulk of the in-demand trades.