Industry bodies, research and educational organisations have lobbied intensely for increased funding for training in the STEM disciplines. It is time to reassess this advocacy. Undergraduate commencements in STEM fields have increased strongly since 2009, yet the current employment prospects for these graduates are poor. Advocates have not made a convincing case that this situation will change. The outlook in the information technology (IT) fields is particularly concerning. Domestic graduates in IT face a labour market in which their numbers are being dwarfed by the influx of immigrant IT professionals, many of whom are employed by Indian IT service companies with branches in Australia. This is occurring at the same time as Australian public and private organisations are sending offshore much of their computing work through these same IT service companies.