457 visas and chef shortages
The Federal government decision to crack down on 457 visas could exacerbate Australia’s chef shortage.
Restaurants have been getting around the shortage by hiring chefs and cooks from overseas. Basically, they’re bringing in migrant workers on 457 visas to man the kitchens.
Department of Immigration and Border Protection data shows that cooks and chefs top the 457 visas granted by Australia to migrant workers.
Almost 3500 worker’s visa were issued to foreign chefs and cooks. Programmers came in next at 3000 followed by medical officers at 2500.
Other 457 visa recipients were ICY analyst/managers, sales and marketing, restaurant managers, software engineers, university lecturers, management consultants and accountants.
All this highlights a number of issues.
First, the local food industry is booming because country is increasingly enamoured by culinary delights. Also, restaurants have become a major drawcard for the tourism industry, a key part of our transformation as a post-mining economy.
Australia’s restaurant, café and catering industry is certainly enormous. Employing 554,200 people across 35,900 businesses, it is the biggest contributor to the visitor economy, working in with tourism which has been flagged as one of Australia’s growth sectors second only to natural gas.
The problem is there aren’t enough young Australians wanting to become chefs. For sure, they’re attracted to the idea by shows like MasterChef but few see it through. Maybe it’s the anti-social hours or low social status.
And so restaurants have a shortage of chefs and the fallout from Donald Trump's US election win and the Brexit vote has lawmakers cracking down on 457 visas.
Andrew Hughes, a lecturer at the College of Business and Economics at Australian National University says the 457 crackdown will make the shortage worse.
"I really don't think they've really thought this one through," Hughes told the Sydney Morning Herald. "They're trying to resolve a political problem in response to Trump and populism without considering the economic consequences.
"The flow-on effects will be huge: outside staff shortages, increased wages and higher restaurant bills, it will diminish the multinational culinary experience Australia offers and its appeal abroad."
"I'm not sure cracking down on temporary work visas will stop that. The political issue will remain and they'll have created a new economic problem while they were trying to fix it."
by Leon Gettler, November 25th 2016
