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10-12-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
SYDNEY: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday the country’s migration intake needed to be wound back to a “sustainable level”, as he flagged the release this week of details of migration system changes.
Long reliant on immigration to supply what is now one of the tightest labour markets in the world, Australia has embarked on an overhaul of its migration system to speed up the entry of highly skilled workers and smoothen the path to permanent residency.
“We do need to have our migration level brought to a sustainable level and we will be releasing the details of that this week,” Albanese told reporters in Sydney.
“This is a response to the fact that the system is broken.”
He said he wanted to see “a system that works for Australia, a system in which we’re able to access the skills we need”.
In October, the centre-left Labor government pledged to address abuses of its visa system to crack down on human trafficking and other forms of organized crime.
It has previously said the visa process for skilled professionals would be made quicker and easier, while steps would be taken to retain international students.
In April this year, Australia proposed overhauling its immigration system to speed up getting highly skilled workers into the country and smoothening the path to permanent residency.
The federal Labor government said the current system used to select skilled migrants, the points test will be modified to identify people with the correct skill sets the Australian economy needs going forward.
“Our migration system … is broken. It is failing our businesses, it is failing migrants themselves. And most importantly, it is failing Australians. That cannot continue,” Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said in a speech at the National Press Club.
Australia has been competing with comparable countries, like Canada and Germany, to lure more skilled migrants, with the surge in demand exacerbated by an ageing population.
The government said the visa process for high-skilled professionals will be made quicker and easier, while steps would be taken to retain international students.
Temporary skilled visa holders, who had been denied even the opportunity to apply for permanent residency, will be able to do that by the end of this year, O’Neil said but it will not add to Australia’s annual intake of permanent migrants, she said.
In September, Australia raised its intake of permanent migrants to 195,000 this financial year, up by 35,000, to help businesses battling widespread staff shortages and pledged more staff and funds to speed up visa processing.
From July 1, the government said it would raise the migrant wage threshold of temporary skilled workers to AU$70,000 ($46,250) from AU$53,900, stuck at the same level since 2013.
