SOMETIMES a win can take forever, and sometimes it can be lightning quick. The point is you don’t know what’s possible until you try.
That’s been the guiding principle of my political work. It can mean opening yourself up to ridicule. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have told me the passenger train to Mildura will never happen – though they did say the same thing about the public hospital, which I like to point out.
Recently I was approached by the managing director of Mildura’s Grand Hotel, Baljinder Sandhu, who told me the story of the acute worker shortage in the hospitality and retail sectors. He said it was a crushing impost on the growth and vitality of the industry right when it mattered most, as it recovered from the rolling lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
He pointed out to me a curious feature of Victoria’s approach to 491 regional skilled work visas: that our state requested just a fraction of the places that other states sought every year.
Victoria has 10 major regional centres. Mildura has 102 vacancies in retail and hospitality businesses. As Mr Sandhu and I discussed, if Victoria asked for an additional 3000 places, and was successful in securing even just 2000, that would go a long way to plugging shortfalls in a range of occupations including chefs, cooks, pastrycooks, bakers and accommodation and hospitality managers, not just in Mildura but across regional Victoria.
So we got to work. We presented the issue to the Victorian Government and, following numerous discussions over the course of a week and a half, we received confirmation that the state would write to the Federal Minister for Immigration to request additional state nomination places for Victoria. It was a great win. It won’t fix the whole problem overnight, but it will provide a lifeline to many local businesses.
When stars align, anything is possible. That’s why I’ll always be brave enough to ask. Thanks to the Victorian Government for listening.
