Government urged to reverse Living Away From Home Allowance Budget decision

The Australian Government has been warned its Budget decision to scrap the Living Away From Home Allowance will create significant and long-lasting negative impacts for the ICT industry and the broader economy.

The Australian Information Industry Association also warned the decision will cause the ICT industry, government agencies and professional services firms significant and critical problems in recruiting, retaining or relocating the talent.

Chief Executive Officer of the AIIA, Suzanne Campbell, said the ICT industry is one of the largest category of 457 visa holders due to the significant shortage of domestic talent in this sector.

"This decision is short sighted and has been taken with no consideration of its impact on the ICT industry which is a key enabling capability for all sectors of the economy delivering services and promoting both innovation and productivity," Ms Campbell said. "It also disregards Australia's place in the global economy and will make it difficult to attract people with the required specialist skills and experience to support the industry's growing contribution to our economic wellbeing.

"The ICT industry in Australia contributes nearly 8 per cent of Australian GDP, employs more than 500,000 people and accounts for nearly $82 billion in annual revenue.

"The Government is threatening to slow the growth of the digital economy which is absolutely critical to Australia's ongoing international competitiveness and sustainability of local business and industry.

"At a time when the Government is seeking industry support for the National Digital Economy Strategy, the inconsistency implicit in the changes to allowance is hard to comprehend."

"Going forward, the multiplier effects of these changes will effectively compromise all other efforts by this Government to address the skills issue, build a sustainable Digital Economy and improve falling productivity. The ICT industry calls on the Government to urgently reverse this ill-conceived measure before irreversible damage is done."