Clare O’Neil’s ambitious reform agenda for the complex and dysfunctional migration system is another example of the Albanese government’s willingness to remove the entrenched barriers to higher productivity growth.

It says a lot about the timeliness and importance of O’Neil’s proposed reforms that they were immediately welcomed by human resources leaders from BHP, Wesfarmers, Stockland and the technology sector, who appeared at The Australian Financial Review Workforce Summit.