High Welfare in NSW Is Encouraging the Labour Shortage: Hospitality Minister

Candidates from the Labor and Greens parties to a regional seat for New South Wales (NSW), both admitted they didn’t know the best way to solve the labour shortage. However, the Nationals MP blamed the problem at the hands of unmotivated workers who are not paid “too much to stay at home” The state.

This comment was made prior to the NSW state elections at the Meet the Candidates public forum Tamworth Business Chamber held the event on February 27.

One audience member asked about the shortage of skilled labor, which is causing pressure on wages, slowing business growth and delaying completion of housing projects in the region. Another question referred to the 11,200-per-annum regional workforce cap.

“Businesses are currently utilising those cap places but using existing or external recruiters and support. It costs them about $20,000 per placement,” The question was read. “We need more people, we need solutions. What do you got?”

Kate McGrath, Centre-left Labor candidate in Tamworth for Tamworth, replied that the question was “really specific.”

“I don’t know enough about that space to give you a decent answer, but I’m absolutely happy to find out,” McGrath stated. “Can I take it on notice,” Before asking for an email list, she said it to the host.

Ryan Brooke, left-wing Greens candidate said the same. “very specific question” And he didn’t think that he had “enough knowledge offhand to give a satisfactory answer.” He said he would get back to them.

Tamworth MP and NSW Hospitality and Water Minister Kevin Anderson both stated that the problem is that workers who are not motivated are receiving services. “too much” Government assistance to stay at home

Anderson, who is from the centre-right Nationals Party, stated that it was hard to “get people to work” Motivate them.

“It’s a big problem getting people out of bed in the morning to go and do something,” The Tamworth MP pointed out. “It’s changed during COVID.”

“We paid them too much to stay at home. We’re still paying them too much to stay at home. So what we’ve got to do is flip that around.”

Despite the fact that the state government offers free courses, free apprenticeship and free training shifts, this is not true. “pretty much just about anything” Anderson said that Anderson was adding these services to assist people in finding new jobs and training their skills.

The NSW government has signed a contract worth A$319million (US$215.59million) to provide 300 fully-subsidized courses in a wide variety of areas such as health, business, early childhood education and building and reconstruction.

It has allocated another A$2billion (US$1.35billion) to vocational education under the JobTrainer Program.

In addition, 465,000 TAFE spaces were offered by the federal Labor government to students and workers looking to retrain in the workplace.

Independent candidate Mark Rodda also agreed, stating that the pandemic is over “certainly” This has exacerbated the workforce shortages.

“You know, I’m gonna go out on a limb and support what Kevin said in relation to are we paying some of those people to sit at home too much.”

Rodda stated that the regional workforce cap “should be lifted and it’s quite late.”

Unemployment up

Unemployed people in Australia can apply for the JobSeeker Payment at $668.40 per week.

The number of Australians who received unemployment benefits from JobSeeker increased significantly during COVID-19 and is now higher than ever before.

Concerns have been raised about the massive government spending on the pandemic, which has led to increased dependence on the government and low productivity.

In January, national unemployment rate increased to 3.7 percent—the highest since May, 2022, while the number of unemployed people rose by 21,900 to 523,200, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Businesses are still struggling with labor shortages. The NSW Treasury has predicted a net loss of over 300,000 workers in NSW between 2025 and 26.

Ask about TAFE Management

Anderson suggested that TAFE should be created in order to address the skill shortage. “back to basics” Poor management can hinder the effectiveness of your system.

“We’ve got a fantastic TAFE system here in Tamworth that is not operating as it should,” He said. “We’ve got the best teachers in the world, operating with hands behind their back when it comes to making the courses available.”

“If you’re gonna run a carpentry course, they tell you that you need 30 students. Oh, we can’t run the course we’ve only got 15 students.”

Labor’s Skills Spokesperson however accused the minister of not acknowledging his government’s achievements. “systemic dismantling” of the TAFE System.

“Minister Anderson’s comments send a clear message: the Liberals and Nationals just don’t get it,” Tim Crakanthorp stated Friday. “A government who does not acknowledge they have a problem are a government with no plans to fix the problem.”

The AAP contributed to the report.