Parliamentary committee calls for changes to make it easier for skilled migrants to stay in Australia
A Liberal-dominated parliamentary committee has recommended the Morrison government use the opportunity of the pandemic to overhaul the skilled migration program to give temporary workers and some international students clearer pathways to permanent residency in Australia.
Parliament’s joint standing committee on migration recommends the government change the conditions for the short-term stream of the temporary skills shortage visa “to provide a pathway to permanent residency for temporary migrants”.
It says all employer-nominated visas should provide the option of a path to permanency provided people had competent English language skills and were under the age of 45.
The final report of the committee, tabled in federal parliament on Monday, also recommended some international students be given a smoother path to permanent residency if they graduate from a university course that leads them to a job in an occupational area with persistent skills shortages. Criteria would include graduating in the top 10% of all graduates in their course, or achieving first class honours.
The chair of the committee, the Liberal MP Julian Leeser, noted that more than 500,000 temporary migrants had left Australia since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic “and the lack of skilled migrants coupled with record low unemployment has led to major skill shortages in many sectors of the Australian economy”.
The report recommends consolidating the current skills lists, replacing the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations system, providing more concessions for regional visas, improving the customer service function of the Department of Home Affairs, and relaxing some labour market testing requirements.
In a foreword, Leeser said the current pause in the skilled migration program because of the international border closure had provided an opportunity “to have a less constrained examination of the skilled migration program than might ordinarily be possible”.
He said the hiatus in people movement allowed policymakers to reflect on whether or not the skilled migration settings were serving Australia’s interests, and whether the country remained an attractive destination for skilled migrants.
The recommended overhaul of skilled migration comes as the Morrison government is also eyeing changes to the humanitarian program.
Labor members of the committee used additional comments attached to the report to criticise the recommended relaxation of labour market testing, which would generate pushback from the trade union movement.
Those Labor MPs said the recommendations were “a remarkable and blatant repudiation by government members of Peter Dutton’s tenure as minister for immigration, recommending a reversal of many of his changes” to the migration program.
But they also characterised the report as a missed opportunity, because many of the recommendations were “reactive, piecemeal administrative tinkering, lacking significant policy reform”.
“At its worst, people could well view this inquiry as a low-rent complaints shop run by the government, to make it easier for employers to bring in migrants yet doing nothing to boost Australian wages or our long-term national wealth,” the additional comments from Labor said.
Earlier this year, the Grattan Institute called for root and branch reform of the system. It criticised the government for shifting the composition of Australia’s permanent skilled migrant intake away from “skilled migrants best placed to succeed in Australia” towards unproven programs, including the “global talent” initiative.