Government unveils new migration strategy
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.
Transcript
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
01:02 part because of these policies that are contained in this strategy. Some of the key components of
01:12 this strategy focus on international students and graduates. The government saying that they
01:17 make 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
01:35 requirement around English language for international students. They'll have to
01:39 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,
02:22 Clare O'Neill, 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
03:03 to build sovereign capabilities fast. Migration can help us answer all of these challenges.
03:08 And that is the Home Affairs Minister, Clare O'Neill, speaking earlier today. As we heard
03:14 her say there, the purpose of this will be to ensure that the migration system is helping
03:21 fill some of the skills shortages that exist within Australia. The government, as part of
03:26 this strategy, will be creating a new four-year visa known as a Skills in Demand visa. It'll
03:31 contain a number of pathways. The first being a pathway for specialist workers, that is
03:40 people with highly sought-after unique skill sets that are not easily found in Australia.
03:47 This will be a visa for people earning over $135,000. The government expects around 3,000
03:54 people would come to Australia through that pathway each year and that they would help
04:00 build the skills of the Australian workforce through the skills that they bring to this
04:06 country. There'll also be, through that visa, another pathway focused on what the government
04:11 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
04:25 those gaps. So the government will also be trying to encourage those workers to come
04:29 to the country through a visa that is more flexible, that allows them to move between
04:35 employers and that gives them a pathway to permanency.
04:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]