City of Albany on board with DAMA as region’s businesses asked to show their support for application

City of Albany council has confirmed its support for an agreement which could ease worker shortage pressures throughout the Great Southern as work continues to establish regional demand.

The City was the final of the region’s 11 local governments to confirm its participation in a Designated Area Migration Agreement at last week’s council meeting.

A successful DAMA application will allow the region to attract migrant workers to fill job vacancies not covered by the federal skilled occupation list.

Councillors unanimously voted in favour of an amended version of the committee recommendation to support the development of a DAMA and endorse a contribution of up to $25,000 towards a business plan.

Cr Paul Terry introduced an amendment to make it clear the City’s request to be represented on the the DAMA working group was not a condition of whether it would support the application.

He said the wording of the original recommendation could have been read as the City’s participation being subject to it being allowed onto the working group which would have been a “bit presumptuous.”

When speaking in support of the motion, he said a DAMA would be “very good” for the region.

“It’s not going to solve the labour shortages as they are at the moment and won’t solve it for the next 18 months, but it will be important for our employers in the City and wider region to be able to access this agreement in time,” he said.

“It will help promote our region and City as an attractive place to work live and play.”

The working group, which was set up at the WALGA Great Southern country zone’s August meeting, has already started working with Regional Development Australia Great Southern to confirm the need for the DAMA by surveying businesses.

A regional DAMA was proposed by the Shire of Kojonup ahead of the zone’s June meeting, and subsequently received confirmed support from 10 of the 11 local governments ahead of the August meeting.

WALGA zone president Chris Pavlovich said the zone wanted to confirm there was sufficient demand for a DAMA before engaging someone to compile a business case and application.

“We’re doing this little bit of a testing of the waters, we presume that we’ll hear back from businesses saying they are short of staff and it’s hampering their development,” he said.

“And that they’ve been trying and here’s some anecdotal evidence from where we’ve been advertising and it hasn’t been successful.

“Once we’ve established that, then it will reasonable to spend ratepayers’ hard-earned money on developing the business plan to deliver the application.”

The survey can be completed until October 27 at bit.ly/3E5bP2s.