Australia’s peak civil construction industry body welcomes the Federal Government’s new Migration Strategy, which includes reforms that could greatly improve the civil construction sector’s ability to employ much-needed skilled plant operators and other skilled construction workers from overseas.

Under the new Strategy, civil construction plant operator and other blue-collar roles could be eligible through a new Core Skills Pathway, subject to meeting skills shortage and wage threshold requirements.

Currently, trade-level civil construction roles do not qualify for standard skilled migration pathways (such as subclass 482) as they are either mis-categorised or not included in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO).

Civil Contractors Federation (CCF) National President Mick Boyle said these welcome reforms acknowledge the importance of highly skilled workers in the civil construction sector, which has long been disadvantaged by the current system.

“We’ve been saying for years that ANZSCO needs urgent reform because highly skilled workers have been locked out of our country’s skilled migration policy settings by outdated and inflexible occupation lists.” Mr Boyle said.

“Now it looks like the new Core Skills Pathway system will have the flexibility to determine our migration priorities according to what’s best for the country – using an evidence-based approach, rather than being constrained by redundant red tape.

“We are excited by this development and look forward to working with the Federal Government and with Jobs and Skills Australia on developing and implementing this new system as soon as possible.

“We also urge the Federal Government to take a similar commonsense approach to reforming its training incentives system. Civil construction apprenticeships are currently excluded from the Australian Apprenticeships Incentive System, due to its reliance on the same outdated ANZSCO framework.”