With international borders re-opening, and a cry for help from Australian businesses struggling with labour shortages, the Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, has recently confirmed the government’s plans to prioritise the processing of 60,000 permanent skilled applications from offshore, with a focus on the health, education, and aged care.
However, with nearly 1 million visa applications – across all visa categories – still in the pipeline to be processed, as well as limited resources causing huge backlogs, taking permanent skilled applications out of the queue is only a short term fix to a long-term problem: skills shortages experienced across all industries and sectors.
When Australian borders re-opened in December last year, migrants were coming back in dribs and drabs due to strict measures in place around quarantine and vaccination requirements. As the restrictions began to be relaxed, there has been a gradual increase in returning migrants. This is still not enough for businesses who are still struggling with staff shortages and waiting months to bring overseas workers over to fill these gaps.
Under the Morrison government, the permanent migration program was capped at 160,000 places. There have been calls by leading business groups, as well as the Australian Chamber of Commerce, for the Albanese government to increase this to 200,000 places to aid in the economic recovery.
The Jobs and Skills Summit, to be held on 1 – 2 September 2022 at Parliament House, will see the gathering of unions, employers, industry stakeholders, civil society groups, and government representatives, to address shared economic challenges and secure Australia’s pathway out of the pandemic. This will include discussions on how the migration program can be used to address severe skills shortages across all industry types, and help build a strong labour market for Australia’s economic future.