Gov’t Slowly Liberalising Australian Immigration Rules

Issue of the week; Migration
Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February, 2008

Australia is continuing to lift its migration intake.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced last week an extra 6000 migrants will arrive in Australia before July, raising the total number of permanent visas granted under the skilled stream in 2007-08 to 108,500.

Most migrants will be employer-sponsored and take up jobs on arrival, with the mining and construction industries set to be the biggest beneficiaries. The measure is part of a package to address skill shortages that have arisen as a result of our 33-year-low unemployment rate of 4.1 per cent.

The Federal Government is also negotiating with other countries to expand the reciprocal working holiday program, which generally allows 12-month working visas for young people from countries that provide the same employment rights for young Australians.

To help the building industry, overseas residents holding working holiday visas who work in building jobs in regional Australia for at least three months will be allowed a 12-month extension to their visas. Evans says the working holiday concession could attract 5000 extra workers to regional construction projects.A 12-month visa extension is already available for people who work in agriculture, forestry, fishing or mining in the bush and is clearly popular.

The number of people who extended their working holiday visas under the scheme almost trebled between 2005-06 and last financial year.

The Government is enlisting the advice of a panel of business leaders to advise it on a more contentious form of temporary migration. The subclass 457 visa program allows businesses to recruit skilled overseas residents for stays of between three months and four years.