Theft of skills is not a good migration policy
Labor Party spokeswoman Clare O’Neil wants the best engineers and IT experts and the smartest data analysts to settle in Australia on a permanent basis (‘‘Migration should focus on skilled professionals: Labor’’, 25/11).
These people were trained at considerable cost by their own countries. Bluntly speaking, to snatch them from their countries is simply theft of skills. To steal these people from developing and emerging countries is even more appalling. How can these countries move forward when their brightest and best migrate to the West?
There is plenty of talent in Australia already, talent that is waiting to be furthered, promoted and optimised via a broad range of opportunities.
If Australia wants to be the leader of the pack, then we have to invest in education and training programs, backed up by opportunities for innovation and employment.
That would also be environmentally much more efficient by keeping population numbers in check.