As regional labour shortages persist, is skilled migration the answer?

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme allows Australian businesses to hire workers from nine Pacific island countries when there are not enough local workers available.

The Leader understands the federal Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) is hosting a PALM forum in the Tamworth Community Centre this weekend to support the scheme's delivery.

The forum aims to develop regional relationships by inviting stakeholders to work collaboratively on solving the area's workforce shortages.

Participating stakeholders include employers, local church groups, councils, health insurance providers, police, and officers from the DEWR.

But some employers say hiring international workers has become increasingly difficult after a recent immigration overhaul by the Australian Government.

Director of Tamworth company Apollo Engineering Dave Errington says confusion around the roles migrant workers are employed in, and their corresponding skills categorisation, is a major source of frustration.

"We've had several occasions where the dept of home affairs has closed the Visa application prior to the skills assessment being completed," Mr Errington said.

"In these instances, we've lodged appeals to the department of home affairs but we've been told they can take years to process."

Apollo Engineering has been lauded as a prime example of how to recruit and support regional migrants, but Mr Errington says even his company has been having trouble getting enough skilled workers post-COVID.

"We need a combination of immigration and training a skilled domestic workforce. Attracting people into the trades to take up apprenticeships has been the issue over the last 20 years," Mr Errington said.

Director of Orange-based shipping company Central West Freight Sean Burton told the Leader he's had significant troubles trying to hire diesel mechanics for his business.

"We found a gentlemen who'd worked in both the US and Canada, but when we went through the visa process the first visa was rejected and when we tried again with advice from a migration agent that was also rejected," he said.

"The problem is they have to have a skills assessment and there's only one organisation in Australia that is allowed to assess diesel mechanics."

Central West Freight uses Tamworth as a central hub to distribute goods to more than 200 outlets in the Central West of NSW.

Mr Burton says having a single organisation to process skills assessments for his potential employees creates a backlog of applications and wait times of anywhere from six months to three years.

"In Orange alone there's 26 diesel mechanic vacancies ... in northern NSW there's 6200," he said.

"To add insult to injury, the migration agent found our guy could apply under the banner of mechanical engineering technician because they don't need a skills assessment even though it's almost the same job."