Veteran builder Scott Challen slams ‘incompetent’ Albo over yoga instructors being prioritised ahead of tradies during housing crisis
An experienced builder has criticized the Albanian government for being ‘incompetent’ by not prioritizing migrant traditions amid a housing shortage.
QHI GROUP CEO Scott Challen is outraged that yoga instructors, niche martial artists and dog handlers have all been included on Jobs and Skills Australia’s priority skills list, at a time when the country desperately needs more tradies.
The jobs on the list are divided into three categories: ‘confident’ to be on the list, ‘confident’ to be unlisted and ‘focused on consultation’.
Painters, roof tiles and stonemasons have been placed in a category that requires further consultation before being included or rejected by the government.
Those on the “self-insured” list are eligible for “expedited” visas, including those earning more than $130,000 a year.
Mr Challen, who has worked in the construction industry for more than 20 years, sees the list as a joke in light of the Albanian government’s plan to build 1.2 million houses over the next decade to ease the national housing crisis.
Experienced builder Scott Challen has questioned the government over a shortage of migrant traditions and branded Anthony Albanese ‘incompetent’
Yoga instructors have been placed on Australia’s migration list, with many fields requiring ‘further consultation’
“What we are seeing now is pure and total incompetence,” he said Yahoo.
“The industry is saying all that because there was absolutely nothing in the federal budget other than lip service to make this happen.”
Mr Challen, who owns Smartkits Australia, Ezy Blox living concepts, Online Steel, Approval Masters and Queensland Home Improvements, believes the planned new homes will ‘never happen’ and the government is not even on track to achieve the target.
The entrepreneur admitted that a major problem with foreign traditions is that their qualifications are not always recognized in Australia.
Many international workers must retrain upon arrival in the country, and if they are allowed to work in the industry, their hours are limited.
In response to the tradie shortage, the Albanian government pledged $90 million in the 2024 budget to pay for 20,000 additional TAFE places.
The government plans to build 1.2 million homes over ten years, but a Jobs and Skills Australia draft priority skills list does not prioritize professions such as painting – which would help them achieve this goal.
But BuildSkills Australia revealed in March that to keep the government’s target on track, an additional 90,000 construction workers were needed in just a few months.
BuildSkills head of research Rob Sobyra has submitted himself to the government’s draft migrant policy list and cannot understand why tradies were not at the top of the list.
‘Does the world really need more yoga instructors right now? From the perspective of our social and economic priorities, it seems to us that we should actually be prioritizing almost every subject,” he said.
Other professions listed for consultation include chefs, cooks, bakers, managers, IT workers, accountants and hairdressers.
A record 528,000 migrants arrived in Australia in 2022-2023, but the Treasury predicts this number will fall to 395,000 in 2023-2024 and fall further to 260,000 in the next financial year.
The permanent migration program will then be limited to just 185,000 places in 2024-2025 – with 132,200 places allocated to skills that ‘help meet Australia’s long-term needs’.
