HIA WA says 4700 skilled migrant places fall short of housing need

The Cook Government has secured 4700 new places under the Federal Government’s skilled migration programme, revealed this week by Minister for Skills and TAFE Amber-Jade Sanderson. Housing Industry Association WA executive director Michael McGowan says it is nowhere near enough to keep Western Australia building homes, hospitals and infrastructure, and wants Canberra to double the state’s allocation.

Why it matters

WA’s construction sector is competing for the same pool of skilled labour as AUKUS, the Olympics build in Brisbane and a stack of other national infrastructure projects, and HIA WA argues the state is losing that contest. Of the 4700 places secured, 3200 are earmarked for key priority areas including construction and health, with the remaining 1500 set aside for AUKUS and the wider defence industries. McGowan welcomed the allocation as a start but said the mismatch between demand and supply is structural, not seasonal, with AUKUS and major infrastructure projects pulling tradespeople away from the housing sites the state needs built. “HIA welcomes the State Nominated Migration Places announcement that will potentially add up to 2000 skilled construction workers,” McGowan said. For a desk tracking Perth’s development pipeline, the story matters because every project depending on trade labour, from apartment towers to housing estates, sits downstream of this allocation fight between the state’s housing ambitions and its defence commitments.

The numbers

The 4700 places mark a partial rebound after a two-year slide. The State Government secured 5000 places under the Skilled Nominated Migration Programme in 2024-25, falling to 3400 last year, before this year’s increase. More than 280 occupations are listed under the programme across priority sectors including building and construction, education and training, health care, hospitality and tourism, and defence industries. Sanderson said the government’s priority is training Western Australian workers for Western Australian jobs, pointing to fee-free and low-fee TAFE places alongside apprenticeships as the primary lever, with skilled migration positioned as a supplementary tool rather than the main fix. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA’s 2027-28 State Budget submission separately flagged a decline in apprenticeship and traineeship completion rates as a structural drag on the construction workforce, a problem migration alone will not solve. Chamber chief economist Dr Daniel Kiely said skilled migration is central to meeting the economy’s needs, alongside opening up opportunities for workers with disabilities and older people, but did not put a figure on how large that contribution should be.

What’s next

HIA WA’s ask is explicit: McGowan wants the Federal Government to increase WA’s allocation beyond 4700, arguing that with AUKUS, the Brisbane Olympics build and national construction demand all drawing on the same labour pool, the state needs a larger share of skilled nominated visas and a faster system for getting those workers into jobs. Neither the State Government nor the Federal Government has indicated whether the allocation will be revisited within the current programme year, and Sanderson’s comments suggest Perth’s near-term answer leans on local training pipelines rather than a bigger migration intake. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA’s budget submission puts apprenticeship completion rates on the table for the 2027-28 cycle, which could shape how much weight the state places on domestic training versus migration in future allocations. For developers and builders watching trade availability on Perth sites, the practical signal is that the labour squeeze tied to AUKUS and defence construction is not expected to ease this programme year, and HIA WA is likely to keep pressing the case publicly ahead of any further allocation announcement.

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