As the Australian government prepares the biggest overhaul of the skilled visa regulations in the past 20 years many businesses living with the reality of skill shortages are starting to ask how their needs will be addressed.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) announced back in February that a review of the skilled migration program was underway and a new more targetted system would come into action in the middle of 2010. The first of these changes was announced on 17th May with the release of a revised Skilled Occupation list (SOL).
The revised SOL sees the biggest change to the Australian immigration program in over 20 years with over 50% of occupations on the list being culled including hairdressers, chefs, surgeons, real estate agents, librarians, tree surgeons, fashion designers and pharmacists. The list has been reduced from 400 occupations to 181 occupations.
Australia continues to be a popular migration destination with 171,318 people migrating to Australia in the 2008-2009 period under temporary and permanent visa streams. 30,590 of these migrated from the United Kingdom making us Australia’s largest source of migrants. Currently thousands of skilled potential migrants now wait to see if they will be eligible for a Skilled migration Visa in 2010 while employers across Australia struggle to cope with a growing skills shortage.
A paper issued by the National Farmers Federation in Australia last week called for the government to address the estimated workforce shortage of 100,000 it expects over the next 5 years. At the present time the industry is struggling to fill over 22,000 vacancies in farms and orchards right across rural Australia and expresses concerns that the rural economy is at risk of collapse if labour continues to struggle with surging demand.
Over the last 12 months horticultural farms have lost an average of $100,000 each in rotting unpicked fruit alone.
Working Holiday makers to Australia are one essential labour stream in the rural economy and are actively encouraged to take on farm work in Australia. The government offer Working Holiday Makers a one year extention to their visa if an individual works in a primary industry in regional Australia for 3 months or longer. Many farms entice workers with free accomodation in hostels onsite like the Berri Backpackers situated in the heart of the riverlands in South Australia or the Banana Barracks in Cairns, Queensland.
“Next Step Australia aims to connect those planning working holidays with farms and orchards across Australia with these serious labour shortages. Connecting people in this way means people can find work before they arrive in Australia and get the most out of their holiday. It is quite possible for people to travel and work right across Australia – particularly with the extra 12 months available to people working in rural areas” Explains Joanne Roberts the founder of Next Step Australia.
Increasing the number of working holiday visas issued each year would help the labour shortage considerably, but farmers are also keen for the government to address the continuing skill shortage.
The IT sector in Australia are also depending on a positive outcome from the migration program changes and are particularly keen to see a review of the sponsorship rules and number of 457 visas granted. Work is due to start on the National Broadband Network this year and restrictions on the number of skilled overseas technology workers currently looks likely to cause delays to the project.
Joanne Roberts explains “Since the Governments immigration regulation changes early in 2009 very few IT recruiters now have their own on-hire labour agreements meaning there have been fewer 457 temporary business visa sponsorships in order to get skills to where they are urgently required. We are contiuing to place highly skilled people with employer sponsorship particularlyJava Developers, .NET developers, programmers, software designers and those with specialism in SAP, visualisation storage and voice and data”.
Western Australia is the state experiencing the most pressure for skilled workers with an expected requirement of an additional 400,000 workers over the next decade. The state is on the verge of another economic boom as a result of continuing growth in the mining industry and expects that business and consumer spending will match and even surpass levels from before the slump.
According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Western Australia around 26,000 workers will be required in the resources sector alone with many jobs created in supporting sectors as communities in the state continue to grow.
One of the three major components of the Skilled Migration Program changes is expected to be new ‘State Migration Plans’ to provide prioritised state sponsorships and faster visa processing times to get the skills where they are needed.
Speculation has begun on the likely nature of the other changes expected including more emphasis on employer sponsored migration. It is thought that the new program will raise the age limit of 45 and increase points awarded for long term work experience and those with qualifications from renowned educational institutions.
Details of the new program were expected to be announced on 30th April, however delays have been experienced and more details are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
