Dan Voelte head of Woodside Petroleum.
The head of one of Australia’s biggest industries today warned that the country is heading for major skill shortages that would damage Australia’s economy.
Don Voelte is head of Woodside Petroleum, one of Australia’s biggest energy industries in oil and gas. Woodside have also announced plans to expand their gas fields, which would create thousands of new jobs.
Major new expansion projects include Gorgon, Browse and Pluto which Voelte say will need thousands of skilled workers and if the workers are not available then the industry will suffer more, he says, than the controversial mining super tax.
According to Voelte the skills shortage that the company is suffering is so bad that “about 35 per cent of the 4,000 workers on the Pluto gas project in the Pilbara were forced to be fly-in, fly-out workers who are based in the eastern states.”
The Federal Minister for Immigration, Chris Evans, has according to a report by International Business Times, acknowledged the skilled worker crisis and has said that the Australian Immigration Department will react accordingly. He has promised that changes being brought about in the Australian immigration program will ensure that employers get the right skilled workers when they need them, “we’re trying to get to an employer-driven scheme where they bring in the skills they need.” He said.
One of the changes the DIAC are considering is the controversial amendment to the Australian visa capping and ceasing Bill which is expected to be passed in a week’s time. This will give the Senator the power to cap and cease individual attributes in visa applications rather than having to cap or cease entire visa subclasses.
What are your thoughts on the Australian visa capping and ceasing policy? Join in our debate on the Embrace Community.
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2 Responses to “Woodside Head Warns of Australian Skills Shortages”
Comment by swinging voter — June 9, 2010 @ 7:55 am
As a skilled caucasian, australian born engineer, I have been applying for employment with woodside for 17 years. most of my applications do not even get a reply. on finally managing to track down one of the extremely aloof human resource personnel….she politely indicate that she did not bother to consider my application because the remuneration and postion conditions were not very good. she thought i would not be interested…
Any idiot can design employee condtions to drive candidates away from a company and then show dysfunctional approval seeking behaviour to julia gillard, chris evans and maxine mckew…. the question is how is don voelte intending to manage woodside so that it promotes growth and social development of the australian community.??? clearly the current strategy is not working……
Comment by Lisa Valentine — June 9, 2010 @ 1:18 pm
Hi swinging voter.
You make some very good and valid points and certainly Woodside has come under criticism in the past for their economical approach to facts. I guess we can only let our readers make up their own minds, however it is true that many large businesses have criticised the DIAC for their changes to immigration policy that they say, do not tackle the shortages of skilled workers in some areas. However we are very much aware that some native Australians are telling us a different story and I think as a migrational site we need to be aware of that.
Many thanks for bringing this point to our attention and we sincerely hope that you have more career success in the future.
Lisa