2 weeks Ago By David Crowe
A Coalition claim about an influx of foreign yoga teachers has been debunked by official figures that show only 69 entered the country last year despite fears they would get higher priority than construction workers. In the latest tussle over housing policy, the migration statistics show the government brought in 11,349 skilled building workers last year compared to the tiny number of yoga and sports instructors. Sussan Ley and Michael Sukkar have both claimed Labor are allowing yoga teachers to enter Australia while denying entry to tradies.
Credit: Alex Ellinghausen The numbers challenge Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley and opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar after they claimed the government preferred yoga teachers to builders in the middle of a housing crisis. The Coalition claims began in June when the federal agency that advises on skills in demand, Jobs and Skills Australia, listed yoga teachers as one of the jobs – a legacy from Australia’s latest trade agreement with India. When this masthead revealed the listing, Sukkar accused the government of limiting the number of construction workers.
“Now we see that under Labor there’ll be more yoga teachers and less tradies!” he wrote on social media. The Coalition has repeated the claim over the past five months to blame the government for the high labour costs in the building industry, a key challenge in adding to housing supply. “In recent times, we’ve had the Labor Party bringing in more yoga instructors than bricklayers, that’s not where we think the migration program should be,” Sukkar said on October 21.
In fact, 195 bricklayers arrived under the skills program last year, more than the 69 yoga teachers..
