Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, I present the committee's report, incorporating dissenting reports, entitled Interim report of the inquiry into Australia's skilled migration program.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on Australia's workforce. While 94 per cent of Australians who lost their jobs or were stood down to zero hours are now back in work, there are still significant skills shortages in our economy. As a result of COVID-19, over half a million temporary visa holders left Australia, resulting in significant skills shortages.

The committee has heard that job vacancies in November last year reached 254,000, higher than at any point in the last 10 years. Business New South Wales told the committee that half of the businesses in New South Wales are currently experiencing skill shortages. In Western Australia, one in three businesses have skilled labour shortages. More than a third of businesses in the Northern Territory have identified their greatest challenge, over the next three to six months, as attracting and retaining staff.

The committee has heard repeatedly that skilled migrants create Australian jobs. Australia needs to replace skilled migrants that left our shores. Without the return of skilled migration, Australia's economic recovery will be severely hampered and it will be harder to create more jobs for Australians. Employers have made it clear to the committee that they always prefer to employ Australians over migrants, but the skills they need aren't always available here. Skilled migrants are not replacing Australian graduates, nor are they replacing unskilled unemployed Australians, but they are filling the missing middle of our economy, including people who can train Australians and whose presence in a business can create more Australian jobs.

Australia has always been an attractive destination for migrants, but Australia's excellent response to the health and economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and our lack of social unrest have given us a unique opportunity to attract the best and brightest talent to Australia, not only to fill skill shortages but also to invest in and create new businesses that will provide new employment opportunities for Australians. Our challenge now, as we enter the next phase of Australia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, is to ensure we have streamlined processes to make it easier to get the skilled workers Australian businesses need, enabling them to grow and create more jobs. So now is the time to attract highly talented individuals and businesses to Australia. This is an opportunity we will never get again, and we need to ensure Australia gets those settings right.

The recommendations in this report are aimed at ensuring that we can take advantage of that opportunity. The terms of reference examined in this report focus on the immediate changes to the skilled migration program required to assist in the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to attract talented individuals and capital to Australia. This report makes a number of recommendations to help businesses get the skilled migrants they need and to ensure that the program can best service Australia's economic recovery.

The committee recommends streamlining labour market testing to ensure it's not an undue burden on Australian business. The committee recommends temporarily removing the Skilling Australians Fund, or at least streamlining its application process to ensure funds are paid into it when the business employs the migrant and to provide business exemptions when they provide training for their Australian employees. We also recommend greater transparency in the way the SAF is used. To remove uncertainty for employers and visa holders, the committee recommends greater transparency, improved processing times and clear pathways to permanent residency for employer-sponsored visa applications. We've also made some recommendations about expanding the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List and reviewing the other skilled migration lists to ensure they are more responsive to the current challenges. In order to ensure we're getting skilled migrants to Australia, the committee has recommended reserving places on flights and in quarantine for skilled migrants. The committee recommended that the Business Innovation and Investment Program and the Global Talent Independent program provide for visas with automatic permanent residency and for temporary visas with clearer pathways to permanent residency. Finally, the committee recommends a marketing campaign to help attract highly talented individuals and businesses to Australia at this time.

I note that Labor and the Greens have issued dissenting reports opposing these recommendations. Labor haven't read the evidence and they weren't listening during the inquiry. The truth is that Labor is divided on immigration. The dissenting report echoes the union inspired, backward-thinking, discredited, dog-whistling, Hansonite policies of Senator Keneally, which were rightly condemned by Labor luminary Bob Carr; the member for Cowan; and the member for Sydney, who said:

One of the reasons that the Australian economy has been growing … at all frankly, in recent times is because of strong immigration numbers.

The member for McMahon, in his recent book, accuses our side of the House of being 'anti-migrant charlatans', but the real charlatans are the Labor Party. Labor's actions show that Labor cannot be trusted to run either the economy or the immigration program. If Labor were serious about getting Australians back into the jobs, they'd be serious about getting skilled migrants here to create the jobs Australians need.

I encourage all people who are interested in the skilled migration program to respond to this interim report, and I commend the report to the House.

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