Migration strategy aims to fix ‘broken system’
A core list of occupations in demand combined with a new visa would help bring in the arrivals the nation needs, Home Affairs Minister says.
A revised skills program and return to pre-pandemic arrival levels are at the core of a 10-year migration strategy released by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil yesterday.
She said the strategy would help the nation get the skilled migrants it needed and restore confidence in a “broken system”.
“The strategy helps us get the skills we need – in healthcare, for our net zero transition and in our digital economy,” Ms O’Neil said. “We are acting to design out migrant worker exploitation from the system so we can protect wages and conditions for migrants and locals alike.”
Top of an eight-point to-do list in the plan was a new four-year Skills in Demand visa that replaced the Temporary Skills Shortage visa and offered three paths to entry with “settings that encourage migrant worker mobility in the labour market”.
“The new visa will give workers more opportunity to move employers and will provide clear pathways to permanent residence” for those who want them, the strategy said.
A specialist skills pathway would aim to attract highly skilled workers that met a national need. They would be employer-nominated, earn at least $135,000, but would exclude trades workers and machinery operators.
The goal would be to attract migrants who were more likely to “bring productivity enhancing knowledge and ideas”, add to the skill base and create jobs for locals.
A second, core skills pathway would target in-demand occupations required to deliver goods and services that “support our way of life”.
A new Core Skills Occupations List would specify jobs with a shortage of workers and they would be paid at or above the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold – renamed the Core Skills Threshold – currently set at $70,000. It would be open to tradespeople, machinery operators and labourers as long as they were on the list.
A third, essential skills pathway would be subject to development but would aim to offer a regulated visa for lower-paid workers in “sectors and occupations that are vital to supporting the living standards of Australians and where persistent shortages exist”, particularly in the “care and support economy”.
Allied commitments to the Skills in Demand visa were to index thresholds to average weekly ordinary time earnings, an evidence-based approach to defining which skills the nation needed, a reduced local advertising requirement, and improved visa processing.
In addition, sponsored visa holders would have more time to find another employer – 180 days against 60 days currently – and any periods of employment with an approved business would count towards permanent residence requirements.
The crucial Core Skills Occupation List would be a single document developed by Jobs and Skills Australia and would operate in conjunction with an improved skills assessment process to ensure migrants had the necessary qualifications and experience.
It would begin with the Jobs and Skills Australia Skills Priority List, which currently recognises no shortfall of management accountants, a shortage of general accountants only in the Northern Territory but a nationwide lack of taxation accountants, and internal and external auditors.
The strategy said returning international students had largely offset the loss of migrants during Covid but a “better managed migration system” would close Covid concessions, raise English language requirements, close off long-term temporary stays and invest in compliance to prevent exploitation of the visa system.
“This strategy is about building back integrity into the system, with Treasury forecasts showing that migration is expected to decline substantially over the next financial year,” Ms O’Neil said.
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