As Australia’s population hits 25 million, Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge says we need to spread migrants across country
AS Australia’s population reaches 25 million, the Citizenship Minister says immigration needs to be more evenly spread across the states — meaning more people for SA.
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TOO many skilled migrants are ending up unemployed and the immigration load needs to be spread more evenly across the nation, to places including South Australia, Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge says.
As the population officially hits 25 million on Tuesday, Mr Tudge will emphasise the need for the nation to continue attracting the “best and brightest” from around the world through immigration.
He will tell the Business Council of Australia that skilled migration underpins economic growth and migrants are needed to address skills shortages.
Mr Tudge said the Government would continue to refine settings in the immigration program, including the general skilled migration scheme.
“We are not always consistently attracting the ‘best and brightest’ through this scheme,’’ he said.
“For example, those coming from offshore have a 22 per cent unemployment rate after six months. The onshore applicants’ unemployment rate is lower at 7.8 per cent, but still not satisfactory.’’
The Government has already tightened eligibility criteria for access to the general skilled migration scheme and will make further changes.
Mr Tudge said the Federal Government was working with Premier Steven Marshall to speed up population growth in SA and take pressure off Sydney and Melbourne.
“If the population was spread more evenly, there would not be the congestion pressures that we have today in Melbourne and Sydney,’’ he said.
“We want to work with people like the South Australian Premier to make growth faster in his state and take some pressure off Melbourne and Sydney.’’
Mr Marshall wants to boost immigration to SA through an entrepreneur visa and tailored migration rules for the state.
Mr Tudge said special immigration agreements for specific regions and industries could be used to ensure visas were available for skilled migrants needed to fill vacancies.
“With digital disruption to almost every industry, there is a global war for the high-end talent and we need to be able to ensure our visas support this,’’ he said.
Without immigration, SA’s population would decline.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will on Tuesday officially declare that the population has hit the 25 million mark.
The figure is an estimate of the resident population. It includes Australian citizens, permanent residents and others who have been in Australia for more than 12 of the past 16 months.