Australia’s permanent residency should be possible for temporary residents (visa holders). A Liberal-dominated parliamentary committee has recommended the Australian government amend the immigration rules for new needs.
As a total of 500,000 temporary skilled workers left the jobs in this pandemic, so Australia needs some changes in immigration rules for modern times. In other words, the country could adopt the Canadian immigration model where it helped the temporary residents to give them permanent residency. Since the travel restrictions are imposed too in Australia, using the temporary workforce in the form of “International Students” and skilled workers on “Temporary Visas” for the permanent residency could help the labor market a lot.
No doubt there is a skilled worker shortage in Australia as a result of COVID-19. The administration announced several modifications to alleviate their shortages. The parliamentary committee offered various options to Morrison’s administration for this aim. These amendments are made to grant permanent residency in Australia to skilled workers and overseas students. In other words, these both are originally just temporary residents.
Some essential suggestions were included in the committee’s final report presented in the federal parliament on Monday 9 August. These are:
- The authorities should change the rules and requirements for the short-term streams. This stream is basically for the temporary skills shortage visas. The rules must be simple to provide the temporary workers a permanent residency;
- Permanent residency should be available to workers over the age of 45 who have exemplary English language abilities. This suggestion was for employer-nominated visas;
- International students who have completed a specific course that qualifies them to work in the labor market, they should also be offered the choice of permanent residency. The requirement is their grades in that specific course must be outclassed;
- Their list of skills must be set in a new way. Australian and Newzealand standard classification of occupation system also needs modifications. These couldbe:
- for regional visas, there must be a concession
- strengthening customer service in the Department of Home Affairs
- a relief from the labor market test criteria.
The chairman of the committee, the Liberal MP Julian Leeser realized that due to the COVID-19, the shortage of skilled workers occurred. A total of 500,000 temporary skilled workers left the jobs in this pandemic. He started by saying, “ The temporary overseas workers who left their job in the pandemic, are the big reason for the shortage of skills in Australia. The skill shortage became a reason for the sudden fall in the economy.”
He further said that “ As the borders are closed for the overseas migrants, the skilled migration program has introduced a chance to have a limited examination of the skilled migration program than might ordinarily be possible.”
He said the pause in the worker’s migration allowed the authorities to overview that skilled migration modifications were implemented in Australia’s interest or not. They were also allowed to check whether the state has implemented attractive pathways for skilled workers to minimize the skill shortages.
He further said that “ The minister of immigration, The members of Peter Dutton’s tenure suggested the modifications to the migration program. They said this in a way showing clear rejection. However, they explained the results as a big failure, claiming that many of the proposals were “reactionary, piecemeal bureaucratic fiddling, devoid of fundamental government policy.”
“At worst, this probe might be viewed as a close to zero complaints shop organized by the state, aimed at making it easier for companies to bring in foreigners while doing nothing to enhance Australian wages or long-term national wealth,” Labor added.
The Grattan Institute urged on origin reform of the system earlier this year. The government was criticized for altering the composition of Australia’s permanent skilled migrant intake away from “skilled migrants best positioned to prosper in Australia” and toward unproven programs such as the “global talent” project.