00:00Scott Wilmington and his brother have run their own garage here in Morayfield north of Brisbane for more than 20 years.
00:09He says it's never been harder to find skilled staff.
00:13We had an ad probably for a couple of years, probably nearly would have had 200 applications
00:18and out of them probably there was only a handful that we'd possibly interview.
00:22It's a problem the auto industry is well aware of.
00:25We meet with industry across the state and it's the number one issue and has been for quite some time
00:32and it's both labour and skill shortages.
00:34Everyone I talk to in the industry are always looking for mechanics,
00:38whether it even be, even the motor industry in general like the panel beaders, spray painters, all your details,
00:43everything like that is struggling.
00:45Some mechanics say they've been advertising for more than six months without luck.
00:49Others have resorted to paying thousands of dollars to bring in skilled workers from overseas.
00:54I think it's out of emergency to be honest with you.
00:56Like we're busy, the area is doubling in size.
00:58We needed to get someone here on the go and we had no luck with seek or anything like that.
01:06Bonnie Fernandez spent 20 years working in Saudi Arabia before the opportunity to work in Australia came up.
01:13Yeah it's good, it's better. It's not hard working but it is easy.
01:19With mechanics feeling the strain, the auto industry says a federal government decision to slash incentives for apprentices is disappointing.
01:28It's an absolute critical issue because if we don't get that right, I just don't know what the industry looks like in the future.
01:35Yes.
01:36I had no idea.
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