The Victorian government has called for significant reforms to Australia’s skilled migration programs.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has written to the federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Population Minister Alan Tudge calling for measures to fix the skill shortages by reforming skilled migration visa settings and policies.
In a letter addressed to the federal ministers, Victorian Treasurer Mr Pallas has said Victoria welcomes Austrade’s move to assist new international market entrants to apply for visas but wants the federal government to re-establish the option for states to expedite visa processing for significant projects.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has called for expedited visa processing to recruit skilled workers for major projects and to allow intracompany transfers.
In March this year, Australia reduced its migration program from 190,000 places to 160,000 under the federal government’s new population policy.
The new measures aimed at tackling the impact of increasing population in congested cities include the introduction of two new regional visas for skilled workers which will require them to live and work in regional Australia for three years before being able to access the permanent residence.
23,000 places have been set aside in 2019-20 for these regional visas.
In addition, international students which form a huge chunk of temporary migrants each year too will be provided with incentives like $15,000 scholarships and an additional year on a post-study work visa to study and live in regional Australia.
Special visa for 5,000 best and brightest skilled workers
To offset the decrease in the number of skilled visa places in the general migration program, the government hopes the Global Talent Visa Scheme will help Australia attract talent to grow the economy.
In August, the government extended the Pilot Scheme and made it a permanent feature of Australia’s migration program, by setting aside 5,000 of the 160,000 places for the new program.
"The Global Talent Initiative will allow us to continue to proactively attract the top talent we need,” Immigration Minister David Coleman .
"Five thousand places will be set aside each year under the Global Talent Initiative. These will be available for truly exceptional people and their families to migrate to Australia.
"Only the best will be invited to apply,” Mr Coleman said.
Under the scheme, Mr Coleman announced one officer has been placed in Berlin, Germany and more are being sent to the United States, Singapore, Santiago, Shanghai and Dubai this month.
This program will be available to only those who have a referral from this Global Talent Officer or an organisation with a national reputation in the same field as the applicant.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas Source: AAP
“The most innovative local businesses and multinationals are doing what they can to recruit and develop talent locally, but when it comes to bringing in additional skilled workers, they say the visa process is time-consuming and expensive,” Treasurer Tim Pallas told SBS Hindi.
“If we want Victoria to grow, then it is vital we have the skilled workforce to match.
“We look forward to working with the Federal Government on how we can better fix skill shortages, including re-introducing the option for states to request expedited visa processing for major projects,” Mr Pallas said.
Mr Pallas has also recommended allowing intracompany transfers in appropriate circumstances and establishing a Visa and Skilled Migration working group as part of the Treasurer’s Population Forum.
The Forum on Population as part of the Council on Federal Financial Relations met for the first time in February 2019 where all levels of government ‘came together to discuss’ to ‘better plan for Australia’s changing population’.
The forum is developing a national population and planning framework for consideration by COAG () later this year.
