Roger Cook has faulted excessive visa processing times for the state's difficulties attracting international workers.
Roger Cook has faulted excessive visa processing times for the state's difficulties attracting international workers.
Those comments, made today at an event hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, come one week after new data showed Western Australia's unemployment rate tick up to 3.4 per cent.
That was the third-lowest rate of all states and territories and better than the seasonally adjusted average of 3.5 per cent or the country as a whole.
Asked whether WA was doing enough to sell itself to the rest of Australia, Mr Cook said the state's interstate marketing campaign had gained traction in the eastern states.
On the subject of whether enough federal assistance had been provided to help diversify the economy, though, he demurred, criticising the reported backlog in visa applications by skilled workers looking to come to WA.
"I think the federal government's response has been a point of disappointment," he said.
"I don't mean that in a partisan way, but the fact that we aren't in a position to process people's visas so that they can come to this country is a source of immense disappointment."
Delays to visa processing has become a bone of contention for the Albanese government, with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles telling Nine Entertainment in June the government needed to create a new system that was "fit for purpose".
This week's budget upped the number of available migration places amid widespread reports of delays for skilled visa applicants.
Mr Cook claimed he had spoken to UK migration agents in the last 12 months who had told him that between 30 and 40 per cent of their clients who wanted to travel to Australia named WA as their preferred destination.
That they were struggling to get into the country at all was a point of frustration.
"That must be one of the great, own goals of the international labour market at the moment," he said.
"Yes, housing and other aspects of our economy are struggling, but we'll work through these in time and we'll find our way through.
"But certainly, the Commonwealth has let the country down.
"Each of the state economies are trying to attract people and the fact we aren't in a position to welcome these workers into Australia is, as I said, a source of immense disappointment."
