Clare O’Neil unveils 10-year migration strategy

Thanks very much for reading Need to Know this Monday, December 11. Here are today’s biggest developments:

- O’Neil unveils 10-year migration strategy: Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has unveiled the Albanese government’s 10-year migration strategy, which aims to lure skilled migrants to Australia while cracking down on non-genuine international students and migrant worker exploitation.

- Giles promises higher wages and stronger protections for workers: Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says the migration strategy will lift wages, offer workers stronger protections, and allow employees to more easily move between businesses and reduce exploitation.

- BCA ‘strongly endorses’ long-term migration plan: Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black has welcomed the release of the migration strategy, saying business has long called for an approach that prioritises sourcing the skills the country requires.

- Three contenders emerge to replace Palaszczuk: Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles is the frontrunner to take over from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who finishes up this week.

- Anna Schwartz denies censoring artist over Israel reference: Jewish gallerist Anna Schwartz has denied she censored artist Mike Parr after she terminated his contract over a performance work that referenced the Israel-Gaza war.

- Lehrmann’s defamation trial enters final week: Further witnesses are set to be called as Bruce Lehrmann sues for defamation over a Network Ten report he allegedly raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.

Changes to the migration system have been hailed by unions and business groups as crucial to improving working conditions and boosting the economy.

Committee for Economic Development of Australia chief executive Melinda Cilento has welcomed the Skills in Demand visa and specialist skills pathway as a part of the solution for addressing long-term shortages in the care sectors.

The strategy’s plan to bolster the integrity of international education has been celebrated by Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson.

“Measures to preserve and strengthen the integrity of our system and to streamline it, making it easier for students to navigate, are very welcome,” she said.

But the Student Accommodation Council has warned against arbitrarily reducing international student numbers, a position echoed by Property Council Group executive Matthew Kandelaars.

“International students spend roughly $4000 per month in our economy, and otherwise attract 300,000 visitors each year who visit them and drive our tourism numbers,” he said.

He suggested investing in purpose-built student accommodation to remove them from the rental market while providing adequate housing.

Meanwhile, Unions NSW have called on the government to lift restrictions on international student working hours and abolish farm work requirements for working holiday makers, which secretary Mark Morey says are key drivers of exploitation.

The federal government on Monday unveiled its migration strategy, which aims to lure skilled migrants to Australia while cracking down on non-genuine international students and migrant worker exploitation.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with union and business group representatives, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the plan had the seal of approval from parties who often disagreed.

Clare O’Neil says the government’s move to exclude highly paid trades from the specialist skills pathway will not hinder national cabinet’s goal to build 1.2 million homes.

“It’s really important to understand that our strategy changes do not make it harder to bring tradespeople into Australia,” she said on Monday.

“The government feels strongly that for sectors like trades, you should have to prove that there is a skills shortage before you start to recruit overseas.”

Clare O’Neil says the government wants the tertiary education sector to grow at a slower rate.

“Today there are around 650,000 [international] students, so we expect to see that sector continue to grow, but we do not want it to grow as fast as it has been growing in the past few years,” she said.

As part of the migration strategy, the government plans to weed out non-genuine students with the inclusion of higher English-language proficiency requirements, and more scrutiny of applicants.

“The reason for that is that if this sector does not get its integrity issues under control, the sector itself will suffer,” O’Neil said.

“We have a good reputation globally as a provider of international education that we should all be concerned about protecting and universities are right there with us.”

Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black has welcomed the release of the migration strategy, saying business has long called for an approach that prioritises sourcing the skills the country requires.

Speaking alongside Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, Black said the BCA had been recommending the government streamline skilled visas.

“We’ve called for a strategic long-term approach to migration, along with temporary skilled visas with pathways to permanency,” he said.

BCA also called for a specialist skilled pathway with high-paying jobs and a sensible threshold with no occupation lists for that threshold, he added.

“We’ve called for streamlining labour market testing, service level improvements for processing times, which have been dramatically blowing out over recent years and trailing employer fees and improved worker mobility,” Black said.

“We’re pleased to see in this strategy, all the matters are being attended to. We believe this strategy gets the balance right.

“We strongly endorse the move to long-term planning in relation to Australia’s migration settings.”

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says the migration strategy will lift wages, offer workers stronger protections, allow employees to more easily move between businesses and reduce exploitation.

“When we came into office 18 months ago, there were almost a million visas waiting to be processed, and beyond that, it’s evident that there was no plan,” Giles says.

“This strategy that we are announcing today builds on what we have done so far to fix this mess.

“If you’re a worker, it means higher wages and stronger protections. It means mobility between employers. It means being part of a system in which exploitation is no longer a design feature.

“If you run a business, it means a more productive and a more certain labour market that can drive your planning and your investment.

“This strategy also means that we are able to better plan migration over a longer-term horizon instead of the short-term fixes of the past.”

Clare O’Neil says the government is embarking on an ambitious reform project to address the challenges in the broken migration system and in Australia more broadly.

A strong migration strategy will improve productivity, service an ageing population and help the country transition to a low-carbon economy, she said on Monday.

“We’ve got sluggish productivity growth, which is affecting the wealth of Australian households,” she added.

“We’ve got a really fast-ageing population, and we do not have the workers we need to care for them.

“We’ve got an urgent need to transition to a net-zero economy and we don’t have the skills and capabilities here to do it.

“We face the most challenging geostrategic circumstances in our region that we’ve seen in 70 years, and we need to build sovereign capabilities fast.

“Migration can help us answer all of these challenges.”

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil is unveiling the Albanese government’s 10-year migration strategy, which aims to lure skilled migrants to Australia while cracking down on non-genuine international students and migrant worker exploitation.

“If we look back at the last 70 years, virtually everything that we have done as a country that’s truly mattered has involved asking the best and brightest from around the world to come and try to help us,” O’Neil says.

“It is an essential system for the growth, for the prosperity, for the security of our country, and it’s one that we need to protect and nurture.

“When we arrived in government, we found a migration system in tatters. Don’t take it from me – take it from Dr Martin Parkinson, who wrote a comprehensive review for our government, which told us that this is a system that has been deliberately neglected over a decade.

“It was a system that wasn’t working for workers, that wasn’t working for business, and it was not orientated towards meeting our national interest.”

The Business Council of Australia has welcomed the Albanese government’s migration strategy and specifically commended the benefits the plan would offer to long-term migration planning.

“Australia’s prosperity, our jobs, our living standards and the strength of our economy are all directly linked to a successful, efficient and well targeted migration program and these changes get the balance right,” BCA chief executive Bran Black said on Monday.

“Migration is not a substitute for investment in Australian jobs and skills, but it is a key tool to fill skills shortages, bring in the best global talent and address the nation’s demographic challenges.”

Unions have welcomed aspects of the federal government’s migration strategy, which aims to lure skilled migrants to Australia while cracking down on non-genuine international students and migrant worker exploitation.

A new Skills in Demand visa has been celebrated by Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Liam O’Brien, who said it would make it easier for temporary skilled migrants to leave exploitative situations and find jobs with better conditions and pay.

“Migrant worker exploitation is rampant in this country, one of the key causes being visa conditions that effectively bond temporary migrant workers to their employer sponsor – meaning the employer controls your pay cheque and your passport,” he said.

“We commend the Albanese government for putting a stop to this exploitative model.”

O’Brien also said the employers exploited a “skills shortage” to use temporary migration as a cheap source of labour, but the new strategy would put an end to this practice.