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Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil unveils new policy to fix “broken” system and boost essential skills.
The Australian federal government has announced a new 10-year migration strategy aimed at trimming the number of people arriving, while still boosting the skills the country needs.
“We are going to make sure that we bring numbers back under control,” said Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil at a Canberra press conference today (11 December). “That we build a better-planned system around essential things like housing, and perhaps most importantly of all, that we build a program that delivers for the national interest.”
A new skills-in-demand visa will be brought in, replacing the current temporary skill shortage visa, with three four-year pathways addressing various skill levels – specialist, core, and essential. As part of the specialist skills path, Minister O’Neil addressed cyber skills directly, saying that the aim is to get the right people into the right roles as fast as possible – but not at the expense of Australian workers.
“Think about people who are working as a psychologist who will take otherwise 10 to 15 years to train; people like cyber specialists who we desperately need here to help the whole of the Australian community skill up – that is really the focus of the specialist skills pathway,” Minister O’Neil said.
“The reason we are trying to do things like the specialist skills pathway is because those people will not replace Australian workers – they will come here, they will build the productivity of those around them, they will share world’s best practice – but we need to use the system only to replace those people, not to say that we’re not going to skill up and train people – that is evidently not the government’s approach.”
Chris Vein, Australian Computer Society chief executive, feels the move is an essential step in addressing Australia’s skills shortage.
“The plan’s aims of reshaping permanent skilled migration to drive long-term prosperity while targeting temporary skilled migration to address workforce shortage areas reflect ASC’s long-term position on the need to develop Australia’s technology skills base,” Vein said in a statement.
“Similarly, the commitments to develop a skills-in-demand visa category along with specialist and core skills pathways are welcome moves to make Australia a more attractive destination for global talent.
“We look forward to working with the government, the Department of Home Affairs, and Jobs and Skills Australia to ensure the migration system meets the needs of society and wider society.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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