Queensland industries have pleaded with the state and federal government to address the critical workforce shortage through targeted visas as Premier Steven Miles threw his support behind a migration clampdown.

The state leader’s comments follow federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to slash migration in a bid to ease the pressure on housing.

But the reduction in new arrivals risks compounding a shortage of workers in industries reliant on overseas staff, particularly tourism and agriculture as well as skilled international fields in health.

Flight Centre boss Graham Turner said there’s “no doubt” the tourism and hospitality sector would be impacted by cutting migration numbers.

He said the current migration levels were “almost certainly too high” but conceded current low unemployment levels left many industries struggling to find workers.

“We did rely quite a bit on people from overseas to fill a lot of those positions,” Turner said.