In response to the Parkinson Review earlier this year, the government has now released its Migration Strategy outlining its long-term plan to fix what it says is a broken system.
While the overall strategy has been well received, there are some proposed changes may have an adverse impact on the retail sector in the short term.
The government has said its strategy will clamp down on an influx of visas to help curb unsustainable migration levels and return the net migration to “normal” levels and ease pressure on housing and infrastructure, whilst making pathways easier for much-needed highly skilled migrants. A key takeaway from the strategy is their plan for a reduction of the overall net migration by 180,000 over the next five years.
Additionally, they have announced that they will be replacing the Temporary Skill Shortage (formerly the 457 visa), with the Skills in Demand visa as Australia’s main temporary skilled work visa. With a 21-day visa processing time, it will be easier for a visa holder to change employers. This will be a large shift away from the way the previous visa was utilised.
There will three temporary visa pathways:
- Essential Skills Pathway – for occupations below $70,000 – for the care and aged care industries in particular.
- Core Skills Pathway – for occupations between $70,000 – $135,000 – The occupation will need to be on the core skills occupation list that will be developed by Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA).
- Specialist Skills Pathway – for occupations above $135,000 – It will have a seven day visa processing time, but will not be eligible to tradespeople, machinery operators, drivers and labourers.
Significant changes for Student Visas include an increase to the English proficiency requirement for both via applicants and graduate students.
A “Genuine Student Test” will also be introduced, and an allocation of $19 million will be directed towards the student visa integrity unit. In addition, measures to curb ‘visa hopping’ will be implemented, along with additional requirements for international education providers.
While the government is not reducing the number of international student visas, these changes will potentially reduce the number of international students coming into the country, which could have a knock-on impact for the retail workforce and vacancies in our sector.
Reforming the points test and introducing a new Talent and Innovation Visa are in the pipeline for permanent skilled migration, whilst long-term planning of migration numbers will involve increased collaboration with states and territories.
Although the Parkinson Review recommended it, the government has decided not to remove the second year of the Working Holiday Visa program but they will conduct a review into the program. The ARA understands that temporary workers are of great benefit to the retail industry and have long since advocated for there not to be a change to the Working Holiday Visa.
In terms of next steps, the government will start to draft legislation to bring this strategy to life and then open up for further consultation. For our sector, we’ll need to keep a watching brief on how international students might be impacted but these changes will help remove the barriers to getting skilled labour into the country quickly, which is critical to keep driving innovation and productivity in retail.
