MIGRANT advocates say regional towns need more of a say on the nation’s intake and dispersal.
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It comes after the Prime Minister Scott Morrisson suggested Australia’s annual migrant intake could be capped to help major cities struggling with over-population.
Tamworth lawyer and migration agent Mark Lyden said the community shouldn’t be getting caught up on the “gross figures” of how many people were coming into the country.
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He said there needed to be a better link between the stream of skilled workers coming in and the needs of employers in the regions.
“I’ve come across, in the past 12 months, a number medium size businesses with the potential to grow,” he said.
“These are regionally located businesses and with the right skilled staff, they’d be able able to boom, but they can't get them.”
He said the priority shouldn’t be solely reducing the intake but to also “make the system work better”.
Multicultural Tamworth founder and migrant advocate Eddie Whitham echoed the call for a better system to link skilled workers with jobs.
He said there were some good points in the Prime Minister’s speech on cities and migration.
“He said Canberra shouldn’t be running everything and it’s not going to be a town-planner or a premier and tell us what we want,” Mr Whitham said.
He said it was interesting to note “more migrants” were starting businesses in the country and he believed they were driving economies in some towns.
The PM said he would move to reduce the current migration intake.
“But we must do our homework first and make sure this is implemented in a way that does not disadvantage those states that are looking for greater growth and that we have the mechanisms in place to direct new migrants to the areas where there are the jobs, services and opportunities,” he said.