Liberal leader Troy Buswell, Western Australia’s opposition leader, has announced plans to double the amount of skilled workers arriving in the state through Australian immigration in an effort to relieve WA of its current skills and rental housing shortage.

Mr. Buswell stated: “We envisage that the WA Growth Quota would be around 2400 - meaning that business would be allowed to recruit roughly twice the number of migrants that it can at the moment.”

He added that whilst permanent migration to Australia is important in terms of dealing with the problems posed by an understaffed workforce, temporary migration will also prove to be instrumental in boosting the country’s quantity of available labour.