Jobs and Skills Summit
Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (09:44): I want to make a comment regarding the Jobs and Skills Summit that is occurring in Canberra. You would hope something useful does come out of it. But let me just make it quite clear here that there are a number of key points that are being dealt with there relating to skills shortages, and we all know the challenges across the economy. In Victoria’s case immigration is important—targeted immigration to deal with areas of need and sectors of need. Victoria, unlike the other states, has had its population fall over the last two years—a catastrophic fall in population. In fact in one year Melbourne’s population fell by 60 000. That is a very significant impact. We actually need to deal with these workforce shortages in a constructive way. I welcome the discussion at a national level of those issues, but the state government does need to be focused on this as well. Health and hospitality are two areas; indeed agricultural workers is a clear area. I would just say to the community that we have really got a significant issue to turn around in Victoria’s case because our population has been falling over two years under this government with the world’s longest lockdown, the biggest mistakes made by this government and the highest death rate in the country—a terrible and catastrophic situation in Victoria. That has got to be turned around. Immigration, specifically targeted immigration for sectors and areas of need, is very important.