Slashing international arrivals ‘will hurt economy’ say business groups

Business groups have criticised national cabinet’s move to temporarily halve the number of international arrivals, warning it will exacerbate skills shortages.

The Business Council of Australia’s Jennifer Westacott. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Business groups have criticised national cabinet’s move to temporarily halve the number of international arrivals, warning it will hamper economic growth and exacerbate skills shortages.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said it was “disappointing that international visitor arrivals caps have been slashed”.

“We need to get Australians home and we were already spread too thin regarding skills shortages – now those problems just get worse,” Ms Westacott said.

Under pressure from state premiers over the number of people coming into Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced arrivals would be halved to 3000 per week “to reduce the pressure on quarantine facilities, due to the increased risks of the Delta strain of the virus”.

Mr Morrison said the caps would “possibly” be lifted at the beginning of next year, if rising vaccination rates allow for restrictions to be eased under the government’s new four-stage plan.

“We wouldn’t want to keep those caps in place any longer than we had to. But I would note, as the NSW Premier did today, that ... scaling this down to that level and then scaling it up again, that would have some logistical challenges,” Mr Morrison said.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said reducing the cap on international arrivals was “disappointing”.

“That restriction must be very temporary and cannot be allowed to stay in place a moment longer than the government deems necessary,” Mr Willox said.

“The numbers arriving now amount to a trickle and today’s cut is virtually turning off the tap of critically needed skilled workers. It is not the number of arrivals causing the outbreaks it is the management around quarantine arrangements.”

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting chief executive Jenny Lambert said the decision was a “big minus”.

“We hope there can be continuing discussions to reduce the proposed time that these reductions are in place,” Ms Lambert said.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert said it would “exacerbate existing skills shortages being felt across the country”.

“While we are disappointed to hear about cuts to arrivals – which will have follow-on effects for skilled migrants and international students, which our industry is in such critical need of – we understand that due to the transmissibility of the Delta variant of the virus that this move will assist state health agencies in getting on top of outbreaks currently in place across the country”, Mr Lambert said.

Until Friday’s change, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has maintained the largest international arrivals cap of 3000 people a week, compared with 1300 in Brisbane, 1000 in Melbourne and 500 in each of Perth and Adelaide.

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese backed the reduction. “We need to fix the rollout of the vaccine and we need to fix the national quarantine.”

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said the plan would limit the number of quarantine breaches.

“We still need to fix our quarantine system so that we don’t continue to see leaks and lockdowns while the majority of Australians remain unvaccinated,” he said.

“But given our reliance on an overseas health workforce, the caps will exacerbate the shortages of doctors and nurses as well as other critical workers in Australia. They will need to be lifted as soon as possible to reduce the impact on vulnerable Australians who need medical care.”