Australia will receive a record 195,000 new migrants per year to alleviate skills shortages, according to a new announcement from the Labor government.
As part of the initiative, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also said his government would relax visa restrictions for overseas students and extend the number of years they can remain in the country.
These changes are among the 36 outcomes from the Jobs and Skills Summit, which concluded on Sept. 2 at Parliament House in Canberra. The Summit saw industry leaders, employers, unions, and government ministers gather together to address Australia’s economic challenges.
Speaking at the Summit, Prime Minister Albanese said his government will shift the country’s migration setting more towards permanent migration to reduce an “over-reliance on temporary labour” which he said was having a “negative impact on wages.”
Albanese argued that it made “no sense to bring people in, have them for a few years, then get a new cohort in to adapt to the Australian work environment.”
“Far better to give someone a sense of ownership and a stake in this country,” he said, pointing to workers shortages in occupations like nursing, engineering, and even cooking.
“It’s not just about numbers. It’s about how we do this beyond—yes, addressing the urgent needs which are there in particular professions, but also in areas like hospitality there are massive skills shortages.”
The increase in migration intake includes an additional 4,700 places for healthcare workers, 6,100 places for workers in the infrastructure sector, 6,800 places for technology sector workers, around 9,000 for regional areas, and another 5,000 places for companies to sponsor employees on permanent visas.
Overall this will increase the overall yearly migration intake by 35,000 places compared to the previous target of 160,000.
The Labor government will also invest A$36.1 million (US$24.6 million) in accelerating visa processing and backlogs, another $1 billion in providing additional funding for free TAFE positions in 2023, and $575 million in funding for social and affordable housing.
In response, opposition leader Peter Dutton, who refused to participate in the Summit, criticised the event for its high portion of union representatives, which now represent less than 14 percent of the Australian workforce.
Dutton said he’s concerned that the decisions made in the summit will be “in the best interests of the union bosses, not the workers” and “will make a bad situation worse.”
“Everything is going up and up under this government,” he told reporters.
“I don’t want more pressure on families at the moment because there are plenty of families sitting around kitchen tables right now with increased costs of living; petrol’s about to go up by another 22 cents a litre under this government; there’s going to be obviously further increases in mortgage repayments or whatever it may be; the costs of running a family.”
