Top Sydney chefs call on government to open borders to skilled industry workers

Sydney’s highest-profile restaurateurs have called on the federal government to open borders to skilled workers to help the crippled hospitality industry.

Top Sydney restaurateurs have called on the federal government to adopt a wartime footing and throw open the country’s borders to foreign hospitality workers as hundreds of businesses face a forced closure over the crucial New Year’s period.

Star chefs Neil Perry and Luke Mangan say the government has to channel post-World War II immigration – when Australia’s borders were flung open to millions of migrants to rebuild its battered workforce – in a bid to save a hospitality industry facing ­renewed devastation from Omicron.

In an impassioned plea to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, Mr Perry said the government needed an attitude towards immigration similar to the post-1948 boom, saying the paperwork required to get foreign workers into the country was “extraordinary” given the current dire shortfall in skilled hospitality workers.

Luke Mangan, at his restaurant Glass Brasserie, is calling on the federal government to open borders to skilled hospitality workers immediately. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“We’ve been at war with the virus”, said Neil Perry. Picture: John Appleyard

“At the end of World War II, immigration was treated as if we were trying to grow the country,” he said.

“By the end of 2019, (immigration) was treated like the enemy. We’ve been at war with the virus – we closed the economy and shut the country down. It doesn’t get much more extreme than that.”

Mr Perry said he had former employees “who are sitting in Rome and Seoul who can’t get back until they get visas”.

“The paperwork is extraordinary given we know who they are. It shouldn’t take 60 days to process something like that.” Mr Perry said worker shortages worsened by staff being forced into isolation had kept him awake at night.

While the government has resisted rushing the state back into lockdown, Mr Perry said businesses such as his newly-opened Double Bay restaurant Margaret faced being plunged into closure at a moment’s ­notice if staff tested positive to Covid-19.

“I’ve never felt so insecure before. At least with lockdown, we knew the government was there. Now it’s going to be random lockdowns, week by week, for the entire time,” he said.

Mr Mangan’s top- flight restaurant Glass Brasserie now opens for just four days a week due to staff shortages, compared to seven days pre-Covid.

He said booming Covid cases, driven by the Omicron variant, were “really going to cripple our industry”.

Originally published as Top Sydney chefs call on government to open borders to skilled industry workers