Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Minister for Jobs and Training Paul Kirby says the government is working with the Commonwealth to simplify the visa process for workers looking to stay in the country long-term

Transcript

Minister for Jobs and Training Paul Kirby says the government is working with the Commonwealth to simplify the visa process for workers looking to stay in the country long-term · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio right now is Paul Kirby,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: who is the Minister for Business, Jobs and Training.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning to your minister.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not too bad? Now.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Last week we spoke to Martin from Fat Mango about
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: these staffing issues and also spoke to Christian out at
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Lichfield Outback Resort about a staff member facing deportation.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: And there are obviously various.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Reasons for those on visas being sent home, but many
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: are questioning why, I guess when in so many of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: these cases they're good, hard workers who've become part.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Of the community.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Minister, is this something that's being raised with you quite
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: often at the moment.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, certainly, there's always people that are transitioning or looking
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: to transition. People can come into the country and get
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: onto you know, there are dozens of different visas that
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: give people the capacity, either as students or as a
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: tourists or as workers.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: To stay here.
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  Speaker 4: If people want to transition onto another visa once they
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: get here, then it becomes a reasonably complex process to
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: work through, and all of the complexities are defined by
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: the federal government.
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  Speaker 3: So we certainly do work closely.
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  Speaker 4: With people when they do have those applications in place
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  Speaker 4: to try and transition, whether it is from a student
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: visa onto a more permanent arrangement or a tourist visa
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: onto a permanent pathway.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: But they are quite.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Complex, and that's certainly one of the things that we're
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: talking with the federal government about trying to make more streamline.
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  Speaker 4: Last thing you want to do is lose people when
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: they want to stay here.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Well, this is the thing, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when we spoke to Christian at in Lichfield,
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  Speaker 1: he said that they're talking you know that they're talking
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: about the chef who's doing a great job if they
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: can keep him out there, and it's been difficult for
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: them to fill that position.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Same as Labib.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously that's quite a well publicized case of the staff
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  Speaker 1: member from the tap bar. Again, people who are good,
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  Speaker 1: hard workers who want to stay in the territory. They're
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: part of the community.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, certainly some of these people have been here for
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: quite some time, so they've got friendships, they've got relationships,
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  Speaker 4: I've got you know, professional work relationships, and we know
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: that they're good people that want to stay. So we'll
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: certainly work closely with the federal government and try and
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: get the capacity for these people to stay here. And
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: we know, yeah, the work of shortages. You know, we're
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: not just concentrating on visas. We're training as many Territorians
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  Speaker 4: as we possibly can and doing a range of different
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: things to try and improve things and get to get
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: more people to be able to live and stay and
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: work here.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, it's such an important thing to do.
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  Speaker 1: From your perspective at the moment, how big a concern
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: is that workforce shortage? I mean, I know every time
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I go into a business. I was in the hairdresser
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  Speaker 1: towards the end of last week, you know they said
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that they're just finding it difficult, you know, to get
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: people here to work. How big an issue is it
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: at the moment from your.
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  Speaker 4: Perspective, From a business perspective, I think in the territory
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  Speaker 4: and right around the nation, it's the number one concern
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: for everybody. Talking to people that were up for the
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: basketball last week about what life was like in Melbourne
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  Speaker 4: during lockdown, I really don't think we have a full
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: appreciation of the last couple of years of what they've
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: gone through. That means that businesses as a transition and
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: as large parts of workforces have gone off into different roles.
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  Speaker 3: It's going to be tough everywhere.
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  Speaker 4: That's why we're doing the things like we have done,
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  Speaker 4: trying to improve the processing arrangements for the dharmas getting
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: over to Team or less Day and talking with people
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: over there, looking at what arrangements have I've got in place.
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  Speaker 4: Antea Farmers and their Master Builders and people like that
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  Speaker 4: have got some really good programs. We've locked in behind
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  Speaker 4: them with some really good funding arrangements to try and
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  Speaker 4: make sure we get these programs off the ground to
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  Speaker 4: advertise and help get as many people here as we
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  Speaker 4: possibly can.
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  Speaker 1: And it's obviously not an easy fixed and as you
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  Speaker 1: touched on as well, it's about growing our own but
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  Speaker 1: unfortunately that takes some time. So it's sort of you know,
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  Speaker 1: trying to diversify and do a few things at once,
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  Speaker 1: I would imagine to try to, you know, to help
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  Speaker 1: our business as much as we can.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, certainly, and looking at the opportunities that we've got
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  Speaker 4: somewhere like Team or less Day, Like it's realistically a
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: forty five minute flight from here. Their training and their
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: standards have really improved over there in recent years. We
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  Speaker 4: know we've got well We've got a long history with
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: that country, to be honest, and they do lean on
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: the Northern territory quite a bit, and traditionally it's just
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: been in the agg industry and mango pickers and people
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  Speaker 4: like that. But we got the opportunity to go through
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  Speaker 4: one of their training colleges when we were over there
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  Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago. They were training electricians to
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  Speaker 4: a world class standard. They added an oil and gas
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  Speaker 4: expert out of Europe that was training these young men
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  Speaker 4: and women, and it was great to get the opportunity
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  Speaker 4: to chat with them about the industry that they were
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  Speaker 4: endeering into. But they were doing high voltage switching and
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  Speaker 4: the whole gamut of training. They'll come out trained to
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  Speaker 4: work anywhere in the world, these young kids, and.
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  Speaker 1: So with Team all their stay, for example, how often
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  Speaker 1: do you think that, well, how soon, I guess you'd say,
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  Speaker 1: do you think that we might see some workers come
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  Speaker 1: across from the likes of Team.
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  Speaker 4: Are Well, they are always coming over, certainly, particularly the
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: egg industry and the ant farmers. A big shout out
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: to them across on the delegation that we did with
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  Speaker 4: the Chamber of Commerce and a range of other business
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  Speaker 4: people just recently. I guess the idea and what we're
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: pushing with Penny Wong, and I know that Natashaphiles met
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: with the Prime Minister just last week and brought this
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: up with him as well. We'll be talking with and
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  Speaker 4: visiting the Immigration Minister over the next week or two
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  Speaker 4: and certainly writing to them again just to try and
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: enact some more bespoke type of arrangements, like we don't
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  Speaker 4: need to treat team or as if it is another country,
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  Speaker 4: but we can make some better arrangements for quicker transitions,
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  Speaker 4: for people to be able to come quicker and easier here.
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  Speaker 4: It's a massive help to their country because they are
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  Speaker 4: such a poor country. It's a massive help to us
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  Speaker 4: at the moment. They've got a commodity that every business
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: is chasing at the moment. So yeah, it's really some
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: relationships like that that can help the Northern Territory grow
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: at a different pace to other businesses down south that
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  Speaker 4: haven't got access to these types of arrangements.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: It's the work that.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: You're doing with various different industries, which would you say
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: at point is probably struggling the most when it comes
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to that workforce shortage. Do you think that it is
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the likes of hospitality or is it across the board.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Well, you look down at the waterfront with the coffee
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  Speaker 4: club down there not being able to stay open.
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  Speaker 3: You talk to a.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: Range of different employers in those hospitality industries that would
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  Speaker 4: like to be opened more often or to be offering
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: different offerings than they are at the moment, but they
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  Speaker 4: just can't get the baseline staff online to be able
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  Speaker 4: to do that. The master builders, like we know that
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  Speaker 4: the construction industry is really hurting as well, and there's
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: a real capacity to bring people in as trade assistance
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  Speaker 4: and train them up. So they're doing a power of
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: work and we're working really closely with them. So Dave
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  Speaker 4: Malone had put a really good program together just before
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  Speaker 4: he finished up there and it's something that will carry
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  Speaker 4: on working with them. We've put some funding arrangements together
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  Speaker 4: to work with peak bodies and we've had a range
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  Speaker 4: of applications come in and there's three million in that fund.
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  Speaker 4: We'll get that out the door as quickly as we can.
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  Speaker 4: We're working with the department in trying to get that
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  Speaker 4: out the door as quickly as we can. It was
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  Speaker 4: about listening to these peak bodies listening to NFT farmers,
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  Speaker 4: to master builders and people like that about how we
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: can best start to address these problems and what left
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: of center or left field ideas that they can bring
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  Speaker 4: to the table that we can get off the ground
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  Speaker 4: as quickly as possible.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Hey, one of the other areas that people are obviously
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: a bit concerned about is our public service. Given the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: fact that we've got this wage freeze that is in place.
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  Speaker 1: We know that we've seen sort of rolling strikes. I
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: think it's say by teachers. We've also had power and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: water workers. We know that the Northern Territory Police had
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: come out in their recent survey and said that it
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: is one of the biggest concerns of course, that pay
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  Speaker 1: freeze for the police officers, the rank and file officers
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  Speaker 1: within the territory. Where are we at with this pay freeze?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's a concern for a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people that over the Christmas break, if it is
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: not sorted, that we could lose some fantastic teachers, nurses,
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  Speaker 1: various other workers to other states because they're offering better
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: pay deals.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, the pay deal, the wages policy being put together
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  Speaker 4: at a time when having your job and keeping your
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  Speaker 4: job was the number one.
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  Speaker 3: Priority for a lot of people. That was fine.
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  Speaker 4: It's just amazing how quickly things have moved since then,
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  Speaker 4: and the fuel costs, the costs of living, rents, and
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: all of those things that have skyrocketed. So absolutely, we're
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: in constant talks with the unions. We know the teacher's
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: enterprise agreement offer was voted down just last week. Again,
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: those results came in on Friday, so they voted it down.
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  Speaker 4: They did vote it down quite unanimously, or eighty six percent.
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  Speaker 3: Oh wow, that must.
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  Speaker 1: Have been a bit of a kick in the guts
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: for you guys. Thinking goodness me.
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  Speaker 4: Katie, I think it just I think it just clarifies
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  Speaker 4: exactly where we're at. So, you know, we would absolutely
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: love to be able to get through our wages policy
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: and these enterprise agreements without increasing the burden on the
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: debt going forward. But the reality is we need to
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: attract and keep people here.
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  Speaker 3: We know that.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: You know, we're not always the best paid place in
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: the nation in some industries we are. We offer a
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: lot of things in the Northern Territory that other states
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  Speaker 4: and territories can't, so there's always attractive reasons to come
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: here and to stay here, but it is an expensive
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: place to come to, it's an expensive place to live,
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: and yeah, certainly an acknowledgment from US. I spoke briefly
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: with the Treasurer last week at stuff that we are
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: constantly looking at and will constantly look at going forward,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: and we'll hope to continue to put productive offers in
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: front of peace.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Do you think that you're going to have to backflip
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: on this wage phrase.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: I think there's conversations that we'll have to have going forward.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: Eighty six percent is a fairly resounding no vote.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: Teachers offer that we put together was a reasonable package
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: and they were reasonably happy. But I think they've said
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: loud and clear they want a percentage based office.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: So we've got to look at that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: My understanding over the weekend as well as that in Queensland,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: for example, the Queensland Police Force they have just well
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: they were often an eleven percent wage increase over three years,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: as well as some.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Different sort of deals.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I suppose you'd say when it comes to CPI, so
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: how do we compete with that?
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: Like I said, we haven't always been in a position
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: where we've been able to compete on a dollar for dollar.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Wage rate with people.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: But I know even you know from my experience in industry,
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: it's not always those opportunities. Sometimes it's about how quickly
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: you can progress through your career, how quickly you can
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: move up through the ranks, how quickly you can get
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: promotional opportunities, how much of the territory you can see,
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: what opportunities they bring for you and your family. So yeah,
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: there's a range of different opportunities that we can put
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: in front of people. Will absolutely continue to do the
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: best that we can to put the best financial packages
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: in front of people. But yeah, we'll continue to work
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: really closely with the unions going forward.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: What did you think, did you see that pay deal
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: that was struck in Queensland with the police.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: I haven't seen that, but yeah, eleven percent over three years,
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: so that's there. Better than three percent a year. Around
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: that three percent mark is probably what we were offering
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: the teachers in some wage progression. But it's not a
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: compounding pay rise, so it wasn't three percent plus three percent,
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: but it was improvements to each and every pay level
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: across the way. So yeah, we'll just have to go
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: back and look at what we had on the table,
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: look at what we can afford to do, and continue
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: to put the best office that we can in front
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: of people.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: How soon do you reckon this is going to get sorted?
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, we'll continue to work.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: There's there's a range of agreements that are already out
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: and you've mentioned some of those, and there's a range
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: of agreements that that we're still working on with nurses
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: and other people. But yeah, it's something that will continue
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: to discuss in cabinet and with the Treasurer and try
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: and put the best office that we can in front
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: of people.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Very quickly before I let you go. The luxA Festival.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Beautiful stuff, isn't it. Yeah, it's well, it's getting really popular.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: People are really keen on it.
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: We know you saw the celebrations from Jason Hannah las
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: year when Choo won it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: So yeah, really really encourage everybody.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: We know that some of the festivals that we do,
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: not just the Darwin Festival, but the Street Art Festival
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: it's really bought the city alive and the LuxI Festival
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: one that has really landed well and it's great to
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: see people really passionately involved in it.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Just lastly, we're about to catch up with NT Major
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Evince CEO Tim Watsford. What's going on with the NBL.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Is it going to be coming to the territory We hope.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: So.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: Look, they are really keen. They had a great week
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: last week. They had a lot of people came here
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: that hadn't been to the territory before. We had the
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: Chief Operating Officer, Vince. I had a range of meetings
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: with him. They are extremely keen to get a territory
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: team into the competition sooner rather than later. So we'll
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: continue to talk with them over the coming weeks and
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: months and see what we might be able to try
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: and organize well.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Minister for Business, Jobs and Training, Paul Kirby, good to
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: speak with you this morning.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, cheers.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you,