Queensland benefits from federal immigration intake as skilled workers choose Brisbane

Brisbane is receiving a disproportionately high share of Australia's skilled migration intake, with the city attracting approximately 28 per cent of all skilled visa holders who nominated Australian capital cities as their intended destination — a share significantly above Brisbane's 20 per cent population weight.

The preference for Brisbane reflects a combination of factors including housing affordability relative to Sydney and Melbourne, a strong employment market in technology, construction, and health, and the network effects of established diaspora communities from South-East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific that have been building in Brisbane for two decades.

Federal Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the regional concentration of skilled migrants in South-East Queensland was consistent with the government's population and economic development objectives, as labour supply was most constrained in the growth markets where Brisbane sat. He noted, however, that the government was also using regional visa conditions to direct more skilled migrants to genuinely underserved regional communities that were not naturally attracting immigration flows.

The Queensland government's Advance Queensland skilled migration program operates alongside the federal skilled visa system, offering state nomination for occupations in priority sectors and providing settlement support to attract and retain skilled workers in areas of identified shortage. Technology, engineering, health, and construction were the four largest occupational categories receiving state nomination in the most recent year.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the immigration intake was fundamental to the city's ability to deliver its ambitious infrastructure program, noting that major projects including Cross River Rail, the suburban bypass tunnels, and the Olympic venues relied heavily on skilled migrant labour.

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