"The new, whole-of-government Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce is a positive initiative that rightly focuses attention on recovery," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
"While our borders may be closed, managing this crisis requires the ability to look beyond the day-to-day and plan for a future rebound.
"Australia was continuing to experience skills gaps before this crisis hit and our closed borders will only exacerbate this situation, especially given the important role migration plays in filling gaps and upskilling our own workforce.
"The recession has had a debilitating impact on our apprenticeship levels and training system generally which will create even deeper skill shortages in the future. This will inevitably require further developing our own skills and supplementing this with a renewed focus on skilled migration.
"The Taskforce focus on advanced manufacturing, financial services (including FinTech) and health is also welcome given the important role these sectors will have in our recovery.
"Some countries in Europe such as Germany are already experiencing a V-shaped recovery and if that occurs here we need a plan such as this to attract the best talent or any recovery may stall.
"The Government is to be congratulated on this initiative and consultation on its development and Ai Group looks forward to contributing to the Taskforce's work," Mr Willox said.
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