Australia’s mining industry will face a skills shortage of 36,000 workers by 2015 and employers must be able to access foreign workers to fill the gap. This is according to the report from the Government's National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce which examined the looming skills shortage in the mining sector.

Federal Government-backed taskforce - which included members from industry, government and the unions – has recommended improving employers' access to foreign workers under temporary visas to help combat the looming skills crisis. 

With currently about 75 advanced major resources projects with a combined value of $109.6 billion in the pipeline, plus 286 less advanced projects with a combined value of $249.9 billion, mining employment growth is seen at 5% over the next five years, putting huge pressure on the pool of available skilled tradespeople.

Australia’s National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce suggests among others that, the Department of Immigration should finalise applications for temporary visas within five working days.

The report also recommends that the Australia introduce "Enterprise Migration Agreements" for mega resource projects, which would allow employers to more easily access temporary foreign workers during the construction phase of a project.

Australian Government should provide for pre-qualification of skilled occupations to create greater efficiency and certainty to project proponents during the critical construction phase.

As one recruiter says, the Government need to the think more carefully about how Australia will compete with countries around the world which are also suffering skills shortages.