Some relief from staffing shortages could be in sight for the aged care sector, with the Federal Government looking to boost the migration cap by as much as 40,000.

At the Government’s jobs and skills summit from 1-2 September, an increase from the current cap of 160,000 per year to as much as 200,000 per year could be on the cards from 2023, as Nine papers reported; the Government is also considering ways to better recognise qualifications obtained overseas so as to avoid wasting foreign workers’ time with unnecessary retraining.

Speaking to Sky News’ AM Agenda, Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor (pictured, centre) said that increasing migration or investing in the local workforce was not a binary choice.

“We’ve always relied upon temporary and permanent skilled migration streams to boost our economy, to increase productivity, which will actually place downward pressure on prices of goods and services.

“We need a modern, skilled workforce. We need to invest in our own workforce, we need to supplement that with the skilled migration streams. We’ve always done that, and we’ll always do that to attend to the economy, and make sure people, as I say, are able to afford things because prices are not skyrocketing,” he said.

The Government has already moved to fast-track 57,906 skilled foreign workers’ permanent visa applications, including for aged care.