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Peter Angelico
Peter is the successful founder of an Australian manufacturing company, and he wants government to get out of the way! Peter was the 2023 Greater Dandenong Corporate Citizen of the Year.
Australia’s political class loves talking about “productivity”, “sovereign capability” and “rebuilding manufacturing”. Ministers stand behind podiums announcing a “Future Made in Australia” while business owners are expected to carry the economic weight of the country on their backs.
But behind the slogans sits a very different reality. The people actually trying to build things in this country are being strangled by bureaucracy.
Nowhere is that more obvious than with immigration.
I’m a Melbourne manufacturer. I employ Australians, train apprentices and invest local capital into local industry. Like thousands of other manufacturers, I am constantly told there is a critical skills shortage across fabrication, welding, engineering and the trades.
Industry bodies report it. Government reports acknowledge it. Employers live it every single day.
Yet when manufacturers attempt to solve the problem ourselves by sponsoring experienced, qualified tradespeople who are ready to contribute immediately, we are met with endless delays, silence and administrative paralysis.
At the same time, Australians watch governments move heaven and earth to repatriate former ISIS brides and admit individuals connected to extremist movements, complete with legal assistance, logistical support and urgency.
That comparison makes many people uncomfortable. Good. It should.
Because it exposes something fundamentally broken about modern government priorities.
Australia’s economy, government should be clearing the path, not burying the process under delay and indecision.
This is not about denying citizenship obligations or ignoring legal realities. It is about asking a far more uncomfortable question. Why does the Australian state appear more capable of rapidly mobilising resources for politically sensitive cases than for productive people who demonstrably strengthen the nation?
I currently have the opportunity to sponsor two highly qualified fabricators from South Africa.
These are not unskilled migrants looking for handouts. They are experienced tradesmen with genuine real-world capability. One even holds a TAFE teaching accreditation and could help train the next generation of Australian apprentices.
These are precisely the kinds of migrants governments claim they want. Men who would walk straight into productive employment, pay taxes immediately, increase manufacturing output, transfer skills to younger Australians, strengthen sovereign industrial capability and help local businesses expand.
In any rational country, applications like this would be treated as an economic priority. Instead, after more than 12 months, we still cannot get clear answers from the Immigration Department.
This is the modern Australian state in a nutshell: endless speeches about economic growth paired with systems that actively obstruct the people creating it.
Manufacturers are expected to absorb skyrocketing energy costs, survive punitive taxes, navigate endless compliance obligations, compete against low-cost international markets, train apprentices, invest capital at risk and maintain local jobs. Then, after doing all of that, we are forced to beg bureaucracies for permission to fill critical labour shortages with skilled people who are ready to contribute from day one.
The contradiction is staggering.
Politicians speak endlessly about “nation building”, yet productive enterprise is increasingly treated as an inconvenience rather than the foundation of national prosperity.
This goes well beyond immigration. It reflects a deeper cultural shift inside government itself. Modern bureaucratic systems increasingly reward process over outcomes, ideology over practicality and administration over production.
The people writing policy are often far removed from the realities of running businesses, employing staff, meeting payroll or competing globally. They speak the language of innovation while building systems that suffocate initiative.
Meanwhile, manufacturers are left carrying the burden of national resilience almost entirely alone.
Men who would walk straight into productive employment, pay taxes immediately, increase manufacturing output, transfer skills to younger Australians.
Australia once understood that strong nations build things. We built factories, trades, infrastructure and sovereign capability. Today, we increasingly build paperwork.
The result is predictable, shrinking industrial capacity, declining productivity, weakened supply chains and growing dependence on foreign manufacturing.
Every government inquiry asks why Australia struggles with productivity growth. The answer is sitting right in front of them.
A country cannot endlessly punish productive enterprise while expecting economic strength. It cannot claim to support manufacturing while making it harder to employ skilled workers. And it cannot continue pretending that endless bureaucracy is somehow equivalent to good governance.
If a business owner is willing to risk their own capital, reputation and future to sponsor skilled workers who strengthen Australia’s economy, government should be clearing the path, not burying the process under delay and indecision.
The truth is simple. Australia does not suffer from a shortage of opportunities. It suffers from a shortage of practical decision making.
Until that changes, all the talk about sovereign capability, productivity and rebuilding manufacturing will remain exactly what many business owners already suspect it is.
A slogan.
This article was originally published by Liberty Itch.
