Frank wrote on Jun 14
th, 2024 at 1:25pm:
A leading economist has blamed free trade and immigration deals with India made by both major parties for Australia’s inability to control the level of migration and the type of migrants they now claim are needed by the construction industry.
Leith van Onselen wrote in Macrobusiness on Tuesday that the Free Trade Agreement signed with Delhi by the Morrison Coalition government in April 2022 “baked in the importation of yoga teachers”, after it was revealed that Labor’s Jobs and Skills Australia consultation list prioritises those workers ahead of skilled migrants supposedly needed to build homes.
According to the document, yoga instructors, martial artists and dog handlers can be fast-tracked into Australia while plumbers, bricklayers and cabinetmakers are not on the core skills list.
The Morrison FTA put 1,800 yoga teachers in a special category along with chefs, allowing them to stay for more than four years.
“The yoga instructor visa farce was basically a gift to India, alongside the recently signed migration pacts that gives greater rights to Indians wishing to work and migrate to Australia than other nations,” Mr van Onselen wrote.
“Through its various dumb migration deals, Australia has effectively Swiss cheesed its immigration policy, reduced its ability to control migration numbers and quality, and reduced Australia’s sovereignty in controlling its borders.
“We are not a serious country.”
Onselen is correct as far as it goes.
Every nation wants to employ its own citizens, which is why the US and EU are shutting out superior value-for- money Chinese EVs, as they try to maintain employment in their own car industries.
But 3rd world countries can't emply all their graduates, while first world countries can't employ - or don't bother to train - all their unskilled workers.
"Free trade" is moot, in the present dysfunctional global financial system, and geo-political conflicts.
Quote:FTAs with third worlders like India, China are stupid/insidious.
Yes, under present global mismagement of nations' trading arrangements (eg the WTO is currently crippled by US "America First" aspirations.
(google)
"The US has been blocking the appointment of new judges to the WTO's seven-member appellate court since 2017 on grounds of judicial activism at the WTO and concerns over US sovereignty. The lack of a functional Appellate Body is concerning as global trade is already slowing with growing geo-political tensions.28 Jan 2024