NSW Premier, Dominic Perrottet, is being urged by his top bureaucrats to push for a staggering boost in net migration over five years.

READ MORE: Sydney restaurant owner Jim Kritsotakis facing brunt of staff shortages.

According to NSW government advice seen by The Australian Financial Review, the new Premier has been urged to push for a “national dialogue on an aggressive resumption of immigration levels as a key means of economic recovery and post-pandemic growth.”

“An ambitious national immigration plan similar to Australia’s post-World War II approach would ensure Australia would benefit from skills, investment and population growth,” Mr Perrottet was told in the advice.

The top-secret, politically sensitive document was prepared by the NSW government’s top mandarins as part of an incoming premier’s brief put together by the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

READ MORE: Alex Hawke MP announces increased flexibility for citizenship applicants.

In a sign Mr Perrottet is taking the advice seriously, he said on Monday that the borders need to be opened up amid a “general labour” shortage to ensure a healthy economic recovery.

“If we lose this opportunity, those skilled migrants will go to other countries,” he said. “We won’t get those engineers, those accountants, they’ll commit to other projects.”

Mr Perrottet is pushing to end NSW’s 14-day hotel quarantine system and replace it with a shorter period of home-based isolation, and is also revisiting inbound passenger caps.

“I think by next year we’ll see a very different sort of immigration policy, and I hope we’ll start to see more people coming in and filling those jobs.”

This news comes as the Federal Government delivered the 2020-21 Migration Program in September, including the largest Partner Program in over 25 years by processing in excess of 72,000 places for couples seeking to reunite. 

Source: The Australian Financial Review.

Greece’s Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, spoke over the phone on Monday with Australia’s Foreign Minister, Marise Payne.

The talks between the two top officials focused on their shared commitment to the International Law of the Sea, to the protection of the environment and to regional developments, Mr Dendias wrote on Twitter.

The two ministers also reaffirmed the two countries’ historic ties on the basis of common values and the Greek Australian diaspora as a bridge between Greece and Australia.

In a 2019 statement announcing Australia’s new Ambassador to Greece, Arthur Spyrou, Marise Payne praised the strong relations between both countries.

“Australia and Greece have an enduring relationship built on strong people-to-people links and bonds forged during both world wars,” Payne wrote in the statement.

“400,000 Australians claim Greek heritage, and this community has made a special contribution to developing and enriching contemporary Australia.”

The recent telephone conversation between the Foreign Ministers is set to only deepen these relations.

ABC Everyday reporter Yasmin Jeffrey asked five people from different cultural backgrounds, who all grew up in Australia, to entertain the idea of an anti-racist Australia.

Koko, 29, says she has experienced racism as a Greek-Bajan woman in Australia.

She hopes that Australia will one day accept people of all cultures and backgrounds.

“We’re already so multicultural here, but we won’t be anti-racist until we embrace all cultures and backgrounds and end assimilation,” Koko tells ABC Everyday.

”An anti-racist future would mean not feeling like you have to choose, like you can be everything.”

She wonders what life would be like in an anti-racist world. 

“If I lived in an anti-racist world, I think I’d know myself more. I wouldn’t feel like I have to strive to live along the lines of the society that’s been embedded since we started school. I’d be able to embrace everything that makes me, me,” Koko says.

“And what would grow in the absence of [racism]? Would there be less homophobia and sexism and ableism too? What impact would it have on the environment if we listened to the people whose land we’re living on?”

Source: ABC Everyday

The hospitality sector in NSW is scrambling to reopen on Monday following the state’s easing of restrictions.

Jim Kritsotakis is the owner of waterfront restaurant Limani at Narrabeen and says his restaurant is facing a stark staff shortage. 

“The first Saturday we open I have 60 people booked, and I could have taken more,” he tells the Sydney Morning Herald.

“But I only have three kitchen staff and two waitstaff fully vaccinated, and unless I get more workers I will have to cancel bookings.”

Mr. Kritsotakis has taken extraordinary measures to fill his restaurant with fully-vaccinated bar, kitchen, and waitstaff.

“We have advertised twice and on Gumtree, it has cost us over $600,” he said, “and I only had one email back”.

The shortage could make or break Mr. Kritsotakis’ business. 

“We do lunch, dinner, and we have a cafe underneath… I already have 100 bookings for Christmas day, but it depends on how many staff I have at the time.”

The public health advice from the NSW Government says that “businesses will be responsible…to stop unvaccinated people entering premises”, which includes unvaccinated or half-vaccinated staff.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that 80.3 percent of hospitality workers are aged 15-44, the same age bracket that was the second-last eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.

“I know the government has to do the right thing,” said Mr. Kritsotakis, “but for me, one vaccination should be enough as long as they have their second one booked”.

Source: SMH

The state government remains under fire to act on promises to remove flammable cladding from some 239 high-risk apartment towers. 

Courtney Houssos, Shadow Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation, says NSW is lagging behind Victoria to remove the cladding.

“At this rate, Victoria will have removed cladding from half of its buildings before NSW even begins,” she says.
 
NSW Labor says the Victorian government has helped 40 apartment buildings remove flammable cladding.
 
The NSW government’s two-year project to remove the cladding, originally scheduled to commence this year, has been put on hold until next year. 

NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler, whose office is overseeing Project Remediate, says the project was expected to begin as soon as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. 

“We estimate the project is between four and six weeks behind schedule. But we are on track to begin assessment and triage works in the coming months, and remediation works will commence straight after the traditional summer break in the trades industries,” he’s quoted in Sydney Morning Herald.

“COVID-19 has impacted the construction industry and how we can operate through lockdown.”

Houssos says a “badly designed building is not going to be fixed by a badly designed Government program”. 

She says concerned residents are consequently taking matters into their own hands.
 
“The NSW Government’s answer to dodgy developers is to allow defects to be repaired by unlicensed and unregulated contractors,” she says.
 
“The reputable tradies want to get the unlicensed cowboys out of the industry, which is in everyone’s interest.”

The project comes almost seven years after a fire in Melbourne’s Lacrosse apartment tower revealed the dangers of flammable cladding.

The Grenfell Tower blaze in London in 2017, which claimed the lives of 72 people, further weighted concerns worldwide.