Why Do We Need Reform?
The problems with the current system are briefly summarized in this article and are covered in more detail in the relevant roadmap actions.
Reform is required to guarantee that migration raises living standards for Australians. Migration policy must once again place an emphasis on skilled migration that is in line with labor market and economic demands. There are numerous immediate benefits to the economy from temporary skilled migrants who arrive in Australia.
They create the demand for goods and services that underpins economic growth, supply labor, and add necessary skills. Through their volunteer work in educational institutions, trade unions, religious organizations, migrant organizations, and sports groups, they help enhance community life. But the current system isn’t built to handle the problems facing our country.
The outdated and rigid lists of multiple occupations serve as the foundation for the decision-making process when it comes to the issuance of temporary skilled visas. They are a poor response tool for a dynamic global economy where demand for workers with skills that are highly competitive globally is being driven by technological progress in fields like robots and artificial intelligence.
The 8 key actions in the Migration Strategy.
1. Targeting temporary skilled migration to address skills needs and promote worker mobility.
Three focused approaches for a new skills-in-demand visa, as well as visa arrangements that promote migrant worker mobility in the labour market.
Existing Commitments Include:
• Raise the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT)
from $53,900 to $70,000
• Provide a pathway to permanent residence for temporary skilled visa holders.
New Commitments Include:
• Develop a new Skills in Demand visa, with full mobility and clear pathways to permanent residence
• Develop a Specialist Skills Pathway to drive innovation and job creation
• Develop a Core Skills Pathway to meet targeted workforce needs
• Legislate indexation of income thresholds to maintain system integrity
• Take a coordinated, evidence-based, tripartite approach to identifying skills needs
• Streamline Labour Market Testing to reduce complexity
• Establish a best practice service level agreement for processing times and a modernised accreditation pathway to better compete for talent.
Areas for Future Reform Include:
• Consider how best to regulate migration for lower paid workers with essential skills.
2. Reshaping permanent skilled migration to drive long-term prosperity
Areas for Future Reform Include:
• Explore a reformed points test to better identify migrants who will drive Australia’s long-term prosperity
• Consider developing a new Talent and Innovation visa to drive growth in sectors of national importance.
3. Strengthening the integrity and quality of international education
A set of integrity measures to improve the bar for both foreign learners and educational institutions while making sure graduates fill skills gaps and don’t turn into temporary workers.
Existing Commitments Include:
• Introduced a first set of measures to improve integrity in international education and support genuine students.
New Commitments Include:
• Increase English language requirements to improve the quality of students’ educational experience in Australia and reduce potential workplace exploitation
• Apply greater and more targeted scrutiny to student visa applications from high risk providers
• Bolster the student visa integrity unit in the Department of Home Affairs to reduce misuse of Australia’s student visa system
• Strengthen requirements for international education providers
• Restrict onshore visa hopping that undermines system integrity and drives ‘permanent temporariness’
• Strengthen and simplify Temporary Graduate visas.
Areas for Future Reform Include:
• Support international students and graduates to realise their potential.
4. Tackling worker exploitation and the misuse of the visa system
A comprehensive set of laws, powers, penalties, and policies designed to combat worker exploitation and restore the migration system’s integrity.
Existing Commitments Include:
• Introduced legislation, new powers and large penalties to punish unscrupulous employers
• Supported migrant workers by introducing protections against visa cancellation and
giving migrants opportunities where they have experienced exploitation
• Better regulated migration agents to crack down on unscrupulous activity
• Helping migrants understand their workplace rights to reduce worker exploitation
• Established real-time priority processing of Protection visa applications
• Created a united intelligence, investigations and compliance capability in the Department of Home Affairs.
New Commitments Include:
• Develop a public register of approved sponsors to enable monitoring and oversight.
Areas for Future Reform Include:
• Strengthen integrity in the approved sponsor application process
• Improve post-arrival monitoring and compliance including through coordination with the tax system.
5. Planning migration to get the right skills in the right places
A longer-term, evidence-based approach to migration planning that closely collaborates with states and territories and ensures population planning is based on the best available data and forecasts.
New Commitments Include:
• Plan migration over a longer-term horizon to better manage the migration intake, with greater state and territory collaboration
• Work with states and territories to ensure population planning is based on the best available population data and forecasts
• Establish a formal role for Jobs and Skills Australia in defining Australia’s skills needs using evidence, including advice from tripartite mechanisms
• Improve the approach to skills recognition and assessment to better unlock the potential of migrants
• Launch an enhanced outreach program to improve access to the migration system
• Bring an evidence-based, tripartite approach to evaluation and monitoring.
6. Tailoring regional visas and the working holiday maker program to support regional Australia and its workers
A commitment to reviewing regional migration settings and the working holiday maker program to ensure migration supports development objectives in regional Australia and does not contribute to worker exploitation, as well as a new direction to ensuring visas for regional Australia are given priority.
Existing Commitments Include:
• Increased skilled migration to help meet labour shortages in regional Australia.
New Commitments Include:
• Designate visa processing to regional Australia as the highest processing priority.
Areas for Future Reform Include:
• Evaluate regional migration settings and the Working Holiday Maker program to ensure migration supports development objectives in regional Australia and does not contribute to the exploitation of migrant workers.
7. Deepening our people-to-people ties in the Indo-Pacific
A new approach for fostering human connections with our area, such as providing New Zealanders with a direct path to citizenship and enhancing travel between countries in the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia.
Existing Commitments Include:
• Established a direct pathway to Australian citizenship for eligible New Zealanders to reflect the strong ties between our two countries
• Reformed the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, and delivering a new Pacific Engagement Visa to encourage more mobility from our region
• Providing a special visa arrangement for Tuvalu citizens under our bilateral treaty, the Australia Tuvalu Falepili Union
• Making it easier for Southeast Asian businesses and eminent people to travel to Australia.
8. Simplifying the migration system to improve the experience for migrants and employers
A plan for systemic simplification that will simplify visa settings, lower the number of visa classes, and improve system usability.
Existing Commitments Include:
• Invested to reduce the visa backlog and modernise the visa system experience for migrants and employers.
New Commitments Include:
• Abolish unnecessary and duplicative visas to simplify the visa system
• Embed simplification as a key objective of all actions in the Migration Strategy
The information above was based on Department of Home Affairs Migration Strategy
