At the beginning of the election campaign, business groups demanded easier access to foreign workers alongside a big lift in Australia’s permanent migrant intake to ease purported ‘skills shortages’:
“Migrants are the backbone of the small business economy,” [Alexi Boyd, CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia] said.
“There’s a number of industries and a number of our members who have been calling for years now to have the skilled migration list increased for their particular industry”…
