There was also little in the way of improved infrastructure especially in the coal rich regions of Queensland and New South Wales, where capacity is becoming a major constraint on exports.

Treasurer Wayne Swan conceded in yesterday’s budget speech that while mining investment would reach $76 billion in 2011-12, leading to the highest terms of trade in 140 years, price pressures would emerge.

Under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme the number of skilled migrants that would be allowed in the country to work at regional resources projects would be boosted from 10,000 to 16,000 in return for investing in training the local workforce.

Australian National University demographer Peter McDonald told The Australian newspaper that this boost would "not do a great deal" for skills shortages because intake numbers included family and children as well as the workers.

He said about 40% of the skilled migrants in this year's intake of 10,000 would be dependants, and a majority of the remainder of workers would already be in Australia on temporary work visas, meaning that if the intake of the scheme was boosted by 6000, the country might get only about 1800 new workers.

Chris Richardson of Access Economics told the ABC 16,000 workers was not enough and that “we do not have a single person to waste”

“Unless we feed more people into the mining boom we won’t have a mining boom any more but just inflation and higher interest rates,” he said.

Richardson said the skills shortage would be particularly acute in Queensland once the effects of the floods abated.

In other initiatives the government will be allocating $200 million for accelerated apprenticeships and $34 million will also be given to manufacturers hurt by the high Australian dollar to assist them to supply resource sector projects.

A further $1 billion will be allocated to extra roads funding but that is mainly in politically sensitive areas away from coal mining areas.