‘Can’t keep up’: PR industry wants to import foreign flacks
The public relations industry is urging the federal government to consider Australia’s lack of communication professionals as an urgent priority as Labor considers easing migration caps to bring more foreign workers into Australia.
Shane Allison says the PR profession is under pressure.
The Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA), the industry body representing PR and communications professionals, wants the National Skills Commission to place professional communicators on the longer-term strategic skills list to open up pathways to permanent residency for migrants in the hope this will attract more professionals to Australia.
“During the pandemic, the role of communications shifted significantly within Australian corporates and society more broadly,” PRIA president Shane Allison said.
“Demand for communication with stakeholders [and] government customers increased significantly, companies had the need to update people on everything from the COVID-19 restrictions and the impact on businesses through to the social issues that we’ve seen dominate newspaper pages over the past few years, and that really put incredible pressure on our profession to stand up and help organisations navigate those issues.
“It’s the shortfall in migration that we’ve seen over the pandemic and every sector was impacted, but we’ve really felt more of a squeeze because we’ve had to also negotiate a significant shift in demand for skilled communication professionals at the same time as we’ve had those borders closed.”
According to the National Skills Commission’s Internet Vacancy Index, there was an 82 per cent increase in job vacancies for PR professionals between January 2020 and April this year.
Mr Allison said the domestic supply of communication professionals could not “keep up with the shift in demand from corporate Australia, non-profits and government”.
Previous government ‘didn’t step up’
The industry body has launched what it is calling a migration taskforce to better advocate for changes to Australia’s migration settings. It has partnered with EY to model the skills gapsacross the industry and to highlight the economic contribution of the PR profession, and is hopeful the government will be more willing to work with the industry than its predecessor.
Mr Allison said the transition away from 457 visas in 2017 hurt Australia’s ability to attract communications talent to the country.
“The government didn’t step up during the pandemic by giving people certainty and confidence in being able to stay in Australia. We had a really disappointing response from the Morrison government during the pandemic, when they told people, particularly students, to go home, and that message really resonated throughout the community here and certainly sent the message that migrants are unwelcome in Australia,” he said.
Mr Allison said talent leaving Australia to go home during the pandemic, or having to leave at the end of a four-year visa, “exacerbated the challenges” because Australia’s “domestic skills’ pipeline just can’t keep up with the rapid growth in-demand”.
The PRIA acknowledges the Immigration Minister, Andrew Giles, is still getting his feet under the desk, but it is hopeful he will support the industry’s initiative.
“We’ve written to immigration minister Giles to ask for support of our industry and look forward to engaging with the review of the Skilled Occupations List that was funded in this year’s federal budget,” Mr Allison said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said Labor could ease migration caps to bring more foreign workers into Australia, as part of plans to help fill “acute” labour shortages across the economy. Mr Giles has flagged a repair job to fix the nation’s complex and cluttered visa system, which he says can make Australia a more internationally competitive destination for skilled workers.
