The federal government will radically simplify Australia’s ‘broken’ migration system by introducing a new streamlined three-tiered approach.
But crucially the changes were ‘not about more people’, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said, and would in fact lead to ‘a smaller migration program’ for the nation.
Australia’s population growth pace last year of 1.6 per cent was already among the highest in the developed world, with Treasury expecting 650,000 new migrants over two years.
Despite the big influx, Labor is concerned that too many migrants are coming over as temporary guest workers, and has hinted re-focusing more of the intake on skilled migrants.
The overhaul announced on Thursday came after a government review found the migration system was not meeting either current or future skills needs.
The three-pathway system unvelied by Ms O’Neil includes a ‘fast, simple route’ for highly paid workers with specialised and highly sought after skills.
The second tier includes a higher Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold – the minimum salary a sponsor employer must pay – up to $70,000 per year from $53,000 from July 1.
The third pathway will address chronic shortages in lower paid sectors with skills shortages including the care sector.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil (pictured) announced major changes to Australia’s migration system on Thursday
‘Our migration system should never be a substitute for skilling local workers,’ Ms O’Neil said.
‘But it can complement Australian workers and jobs and skills in Australia if we do this properly.’
The retention of international students will also become a key focus of migration in a global race for talent as the nation tries to plug critical worker shortages across the economy and deal with the challenges of an ageing population.
The overhaul will cover permanent residency for temporary visa holders, and ways to bring in skilled migrants to boost the economy.
About two million people in Australia are on temporary visas, with about 10 per cent a year becoming permanent migrants.
Under the changes, temporary migrants will be allowed to move between employers to reduce the risk of exploitation and they will be given clearer pathways to permanent residency.
Clare O’Neil (pictured) said ‘Our migration system should never be a substitute for skilling local workers’
The government also aims to ‘unlock the potential’ of migrant women.
Visa categories and rules will be simplified, Australia will more actively promote itself as a destination for prospective talent, and housing and service provision will be more closely aligned with the migration intake.
Ms O’Neil said the existing system was too complicated.
‘We have hundreds of these categories and subcategories. It is a mess of three digit Visa codes. 186, the 864, 408,’ she said.
She said most of the migration debates in Australia are obsessed with whether the country aims for a ‘big Australia or small Australia and you have to push yourself into one of those dichotomies’.
The Minister added that ‘inevitably the size of this program depends a little bit on the circumstances at the moment’ and that during the pandemic there was zero migration.
‘We are playing catch-up and have serious labour shortages and it is probably inevitable we will run a slightly larger migration program over time (than at present).
‘My desire is to see that program tightened and potentially smaller into the medium term and most of the proposals I have talked about today will assist us in doing that,’ she said.
Concerns have been raised by Pacific governments that some of their communities will be emptied of prime age workers across all skill levels as they emigrate to Australia.
Ms O’Neil was asked ‘What is our obligation to Pacific partners to not allow that to happen?’
She replied that ‘The Pacific scheme is something we as a country conduct because it is beneficial to our country but also to Pacific nations.
‘Obviously the Government takes incredibly seriously any concerns that are based around that not working for our partner countries. It is not desirable.
‘This is meant be a win-win for both countries and I think generally, it is,’ she said.
Ms O’Neil finished by addressing a question on how big Australia’s population is likely to grow.
‘I’m not someone who advocates for a big Australia in this conversation,’ she said.
‘What’s really important to me is that we’ve got these big national problems facing our country and we’re not getting the right people here through the migration system to help us address them.
‘So the focus of this task is not about more people, it’s not about a bigger program and the likely impact of the changes that I have suggested here is probably a slightly smaller migration program over time.
‘But what matters most is what this system is doing four our country. At the moment it is broken and our government is planning to fix it.’
More highly-skilled migrants could soon be arriving in Australia. Pictured is a Qantas plane
Former senior public servant Dr Martin Parkinson, who led the expert panel, said the system wasn’t doing the job it was supposed to do.
The panel handed down 38 policy reform considerations to the government in its report.
Dr Parkinson said the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold, which was frozen in 2013 at $53,900, needed to be updated.
He also said issues in regional Australia could not be addressed solely through migration, and the same reason why remote areas couldn’t attract residents to live there applied to migrants.
There are now more than 1.8million temporary migrants living in Australia with the right to work, with many facing ‘tangled’ and lengthy pathways to permanent residence.
‘It is not in Australia’s national interest to maintain a large proportion of temporary entrants with no pathway to citizenship as it undermines our democratic resilience and social cohesion,’ the report reads.
Some employer groups have called for looser restrictions on skilled migration caps and target industries, while others want a rethink of English language requirements and rules regarding post-study employment.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said the government needed to ensure the new policies and settings did not put undue pressure on the already stretched rental housing market.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson said Australia was a richer country because of the millions of migrants who had come to its shores.
But the size, composition and timing of the migration intake were ‘legitimate areas for public debate’, he told Sky News.
‘It’s time for (the government) to front up and provide some answers – what is their plan, how many people do they intend to bring in.
‘How are they going to reduce the numbers of temporary visa holders while also solving the skills shortage?’ Senator Paterson said.
Labor MP Peter Khalil, the parliamentary intelligence and security committee chair, and said the migration system was ‘unjust, slow and unplanned’.
The Albanese Government will make significant changes to a ‘broken’ migration system after a review found it was not meeting either current or future needs. Anthony Albanese is pictured right
‘Over the last nine years under a Liberal government it’s become a dog’s breakfast,’ he told Sky News.
Mr Khalil said one of the key problems was the increase in temporary visas while permanent migration had largely remained steady.
He said migrants who were allowed in the past to ‘put a stake in the ground’ had gone on to build modern-day Australia.
The government’s review considered 483 public submissions from individuals, corporations, unions, think tanks and other interested parties.
The executive summary of the report stated that ‘Migration is a central element of Australia’s national identity.
‘As a country, we actively seek new members of our community from across the world, welcoming a disproportionately large component of the world’s migration flows.’