Six months ago, the Albanese Government commissioned a Review of Australia’s Migration System. The decision was motivated by concerns communicated by all stakeholders (Australian Employer Groups, Industry, Unions and Community Groups) about the effectiveness and fairness of Australia’s existing migration system. These concerns peaked in the period after the Covid-19 pandemic, with many suggesting that Australia’s ability to attract highly skilled workers had declined markedly given recent innovative changes to migration laws in countries like the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The Final Report of the Review of the Migration System [see Review of the Migration System (homeaffairs.gov.au)] was released by the Federal Home Affairs Minister, the Hon. Clare O’Neil. In an address to the National Press Club, the Minister not only summarised the key findings of the report, but also indicated how the Albanese Government proposed to change Australia’s Migration Laws to address the key issues identified in the Review.
At a headline level, the Review states that Australia’s migration system is ‘broken’. The Review Panel stated that the current system was too complex, could be readily gamed by visa applicants (and their agents) and employers alike, and that low-paid visa workers were vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous Australian employers.
“Most importantly, the findings of the Review concluded that Australia’s current system placed Australia at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to attracting middle and highly skilled workers in the post-Covid war for global talent”, said ACAPMA CEO Mark McKenzie.
One of the more contentious announcements by the Minister was that the annual wages of low-paid migrant workers increase from the current cap of $53,900 to $70,000 from 1 July 2023. This increase is the first in more than a decade and applies to all classes of skilled worker visas.
“It should be noted that most of the jobs in our industry – particularly in fuel retail – are not impacted by this change given that console operators (and other general retail roles) have been ineligible for ‘skilled’ worker visas since 2017”, said Mark.
“Rather, these changes are likely to impact ‘specialist’ skilled roles in the retail industry (e.g. hairdressers), the hospitality industry (e.g. Chefs), the management and accounting industry, the construction industry, and some elements of the automotive Industry (e.g. mechanics).”
In a move welcomed by ACAPMA, the government is looking to remove some of the rules imposed on some classes of permanent visas that previously required visa holders to relocate to regional areas after a defined period. This restriction has been the subject of considerable advocacy by ACAPMA in recent years and the proposed changes will likely go some way towards redressing the perverse requirement for skilled workers (with good jobs in capital cities) to relocate to regional centres – where they cannot secure the same skilled jobs due to limited employment opportunities.
“The Report and the accompanying statements by the Minister for Home Affairs does, however, send two significant warnings to industries like ours that rely on significant numbers of temporary visa workers – most notably workers on student visas and ‘accompanying spouse’ visas,” said Mark.
The first is that, while the Government intends to maintain the higher 195,000 annual intake of permanent skilled migrants for the foreseeable future, the Government’s new migration strategy is expected to reduce the annual intake of temporary migrants.
“While it is assumed that the announcement of a lower intake of temporary migrants will not impact student visas, ACAPMA will be seeking clarification of the extent of any decrease in temporary migrants and the degree to which this may have an adverse impact on an already challenging workforce supply issue in our industry”, said Mark.
The second issue raised in the Review, and highlighted by the Minister, was the absolute intent to reduce the degree to which the complexity of the current system could be gamed by unscrupulous employers to exploit temporary migrant workers (including those on student visas) – most notably, by not paying correct wages.
“Measures to stamp out deliberate and systemic wage underpayment – whether that be payments made to Australian citizens or migrant workers – are strongly supported by ACAPMA on the grounds that these issues are not just manifestly unfair to the employees, but also distort market competition in our deeply competitive industry”, said Mark.
Accordingly, ACAPMA will be working with both the Home Affairs Department and the Department of Employment and Workplace relations to ensure that any changes made to migration system in respect of reducing the risk of temporary migrant exploitation, are wholly consistent with draft changes to wage underpayment laws being considered by the Albanese Government later in the year.
On a final note, the Minister’s statements did not include any statement about the prospect of the Albanese Government extending the current exemption on the cap of allowable working hours for temporary migrants on student visas.
As ACAPMAg has reported extensively the standard hours cap (of 40 hours per fortnight) has been subject to a temporary Covid exemption allowing workers to work up to 38h per week, with the Covid exemption set to expire on 30 June 2023. In February the Government announced that the standard cap would be lifted from 40 hours per fortnight to 48 hours per fortnight. This modest lift in the standard cap on hours would apply when the temporary Covid exemption on working hours expires on 30 June 2023.
ACAPMA has been, and will continue to, press the Albanese Government and the Federal Opposition (and the cross benches) for an extension of the current exemption in student working hours beyond the scheduled expiry of 30 June 2023.
“Quite apart from the significant workforce challenge this poses to the fuel retail sectors given the low availability of workers, many of these students are grappling with sharp rises in rental and living costs that would be greatly exacerbated if they were forced back to the new legislated cap of 48hours per fortnight from 30 June 2023”, said Mark.
“While we are aware that the Department of Immigration has been sending out letters to student visa holders advising the proposed change, we will continue to press for a further extension on economic and social grounds right up to – and if need be, beyond – the scheduled expiry of the current exemption”, concluded Mark.
ACAPMA notes the Ministers identified that there would be further changes to be announced in the coming weeks and will be working with Government and industry to explore, process and communicate these changes.
ACAPMA
Source: https://acapmag.com.au/2023/04/government-warnings-on-temporary-migration/.
