There were many New Australians employed on the Hydro Scheme, often in a manual capacity, who in their home countries were professional men and women (trained Nurses/Midwives) who because of their lack of english or national origins were destined to, metaphorically speaking, swing a pick & shovel until their real skills emerged.

A small Coffee Shoppe where I had my mandatory two doses of morning caffeine, together with a glance through the Oz Newspaper was managed by an Egyptian Bloke and his wife. He was a Veterinary Surgeon and she a Chartered Accountant (Chartered in the UK).

I always have & still wonder about the real reason overseas qualifications aren't recognised here despite their quite often overwhelming expertise & professionalism to the ones here.
Professional jealousy ?

Ok, try this one for size; Called several engineering shops to ask for a small 500 mm long steel plate with 5 holes (15mm). Every one of these "Engineering" shops advised "we can only sell you the flat bar by a metre & you'll need to get the holes done at the laser shop.
I must be getting old because when I worked in engineering shops we simply took a flat bar, cut off 500 mm & drilled the holes. Job done !
I was told that I'd need to arrange for a courier to take the plate from the engineering shops to the Laser cutters ?
Can anyone see why things are not good anymore ? Soon, when you take your car for service you'll hire a qualified driver to take your car to a servo to pump up the tyres after the service is done.
Talk about skilled workers, does anyone think imported workers would be so stupid ?

More fear of competition by powerful organisations I would think individual.

The Snowy employment of migrants raised some annoyance in the bush out that way o sung wu. The income achieved by those migrants was much higher than most skilled or unskilled labour in the bush, & the locals could not get a look in at those jobs.

I'll tell you where our skilled workers are today Paul, they are doing the better paid unskilled work available. A highly skilled mechanic mate of mine recently tried to get out of the workshop of the large trucking company he had been with for a while, & into the drivers seat of one of their trucks. When he was told he was too valuable in the workshop, his suggestion they should pay him at least the same money they paid drivers was rejected he quit. He is now driving for a new company, on better money.

When a tradesman gets paid way less than a semi skilled wharf laborer, why the hell would our kids bother with an apprenticeship, & the low money for 4 years, if there was no pay off at the finish.

I suggest you blame the Arbitration Commission for the problem, & the power of the unions. Both have caused huge discrepancies in the pay rates for most of Australia, causing the shortage of trades people. I guess supply & demand will ultimately fix this, but it is going to get worse before it improves.

We should be training our own people not going overseas for skills. There is a crisis in youth unemployment in many locations. Managerialism as Burnham said is a big part of the problem- you need a piece of paper for everything- rather than learning on the job.

The claimed skills shortage is an excuse to replace British Australian's- both major parties want to do they for their own reasons for cultural nihilism and for lower wages. At least there are some Traditionalists within the Coalition Liberal Nationals. The claim that Australian's won't buy Australian companies is an excuse to sell to foreigners- but the real reason is because they want a higher price and they believe they can achieve this by manipulating the market

Indy, you don't know much; You asked for flat bar, 500 mm long, no width, no thickness, black or gal, hole centres, edge distance. Back in the day, if you were a good bloke, that would be a "foreign order" job. In your case I'd get it done for you, by the first year apprentice.

BTW, do you want the Sharpe edges taken off?