The federal government has announced its new migration strategy, which plans to reduce migrant intake by raising requirements for international students and some workers to get a visa. Under the strategy, minimum english language requirements for international students will be increased, and the government will crackdown on what it describes as student 'visa hopping'.
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00:00 This has been a long-awaited document. It is a lengthy 100-page strategy that the government
00:06 says will guide the nation's migration system over the coming years. It contains new commitments,
00:15 it contains steps that will be required into the future and also previously announced policies
00:22 - announced earlier this year. And it's been developed in response to a review of the migration
00:28 system conducted by Dr Martin Parkinson earlier this year which found that this system was broken
00:34 and that it was not fit for purpose. Now the government says that this will help make sure
00:39 that the migration system is working for the nation and it'll help put downward pressure on
00:45 ballooning net migration figures which hit 510,000 last financial year. The government is now
00:54 forecasting that that number will halve within two years hitting 250,000 in the year 2025 in part
01:03 because of these policies that are contained in this strategy. Some of the key components of this
01:13 strategy focus on international students and graduates. The government saying that they make
01:17 up the largest cohort of what it describes as permanently temporary people staying in Australia.
01:26 So it says that it will be cracking down on those visa categories. It'll be implementing a tougher
01:34 requirement around English language for international students. They'll have to
01:38 demonstrate a higher English language skill to be granted a visa. It'll also be cracking down
01:45 on dodgy vocational education providers. It's also saying that non-genuine students,
01:52 those who come to Australia with the intention to work rather than to study,
01:57 will also be scrutinised more through the process before they are granted a visa.
02:02 And the government will also be clamping down on a practice that it describes as visa hopping,
02:06 that is people coming to Australia and switching between student visas in order to stay in the
02:13 country for longer even though they have little prospect of ever becoming a permanent resident.
02:18 Let's take a listen to some of what the Home Affairs Minister, Claire O'Neill,
02:23 had to say earlier today when unveiling this new strategy.
02:26 It's not just about this moment and the experience of migration our country is having at this time.
02:32 This is about Australia's future. We've got some really big national challenges that we face as a
02:39 country. We've got sluggish prosperity growth which is affecting the wealth of Australian
02:43 households. We've got a really fast aging population and we do not have the workers
02:48 we need to care for them. We've got an urgent need to transition to a net zero economy and
02:53 we don't have the skills and capabilities here to do it. And we face the most challenging
02:58 geostrategic circumstances in our region that we've seen in 70 years and we need to build
03:03 sovereign capabilities fast. Migration can help us answer all of these challenges.
03:10 And that is the Home Affairs Minister, Claire O'Neill, speaking earlier today. As we heard her
03:15 say there, the purpose of this will be to ensure that the migration system is helping fill some of
03:22 the skills shortages that exist within Australia. The government, as part of this strategy, will be
03:26 creating a new four-year visa known as a Skills in Demand visa. It will contain a number of pathways.
03:34 The first being a pathway for specialist workers, that is people with highly sought-after unique
03:42 skill sets that are not easily found in Australia. This will be a visa for people earning over $135,000.
03:51 The government expects around 3,000 people would come to Australia through that pathway each year
03:59 and that they would help build the skills of the Australian workforce through the skills that they
04:05 bring to this country. There will also be, through that visa, another pathway focused on what the
04:10 government describes as core skills. So, these are jobs that are listed by Jobs and Skills Australia
04:18 as occupations that are experiencing shortages and where Australian workers are not filling those
04:25 gaps. So, the government will also be trying to encourage those workers to come to the country
04:30 through a visa that is more flexible, that allows them to move between employers and that gives them
04:37 a pathway to permanency into the future roles. So, that is, in the broad, some of the key elements
04:44 contained in this strategy.
04:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]