LIFTING Australia's permanent skilled migration cap has been welcomed, but may not address staff shortages for small and medium regional businesses, the head of the Hunter's business chamber says.
The federal government announced on Friday at its Jobs and Skills that the country's permanent migration cap would be increased by 35,000 to 195,000 this financial year in an effort to appease worker shortages across the nation. Regional Australia will have access to 34,000 of the places, an increase of 9000. But Business Hunter's CEO Bob Hawes said the scheme would be unsuitable to a lot of small to medium Hunter traders.
