Originally Posted by diuretic

I think the problem is lack of skilled labour here. Thanks to the Howard government which dismantled the previous Labor government's skills training programmes we have a lack of skilled labour. Howard's solution was to allow employers to apply for short term work visas for skilled workers from overseas. But that didn't alleviate the skills shortage. Part of the inflation problem we have at the moment is due to capacity constraints. One of those capacity constraints is skilled labour. A lack of skilled labour sees the laws of supply and demand kick in and up goes the price of skilled labour and we get an inflation spiral.

So, the Rudd Government is going to have an immigration scheme to bring in permanent and temporary skilled labour. That should help. But they also need to bring back the Keating government's skills training programmes.