Jobs summit to canvas plans to speed up processing of hundreds of thousands of visas

A 330,000-strong army of ­migrant workers could be ­unleashed on the economy under plans to speed up visa processing given Australia’s major skill shortage.

A 330,000-strong army of ­migrant workers could be ­unleashed on the economy under plans to be canvassed at next week’s jobs summit.

Senior federal Government sources said speeding up visa processing would impact the hundreds of thousands of migrants stuck on bridging visas.

Many of these migrants have some work rights in Australia but, in many cases, have remained stranded without permanent residency, some for as long as a decade.

With the country facing a dire skills shortage, firing up this potential workforce was vital, according to a senior ­government source.

“We have to find a way to move these people into permanent residency or a lot of them will leave the country,” the source said.

The Government is already putting resources into sorting through tens of thousands of workers who are waiting to have their visas processed.

But most of them can’t study TAFE or university courses without paying international student rates.

Many of them also find it hard to change jobs.

Business is also understood to be interested in smoothing the pathway to permanent residency for new migrants as ­dependence on temporary ­migration is affecting Australia’s ability to attract highly-skilled migrants.

Government sources said the business community was also likely to get a commitment to increase the skilled migrant intake to between 190,000 and 200,000 a year.

They said the summit was likely to include discussions about ways to maximise these workers’ ability to contribute to the economy.

Meanwhile, hopes were fading that there will be changes to industrial relations rules across the board as an outcome from the summit.

In recent days the Government has signalled that it is open to a return to pattern ­bargaining across the sectors of the economy, a key demand of the ACTU.

But senior government sources said it was likely any changes agreed with business would be confined to those parts of the economy such as health, aged and child care that receive large amounts of government funding.

The Government is also open to allowing small businesses, such as petrol stations which operate across different awards, to band together to negotiate with unions.

On training, the government is looking for ways to ­improve the number of people completing apprenticeships and traineeships, which is stuck at 55 per cent. Government sources said employers need to increase the way they support apprentices in order to improve the completion rate.

Originally published as Jobs summit to canvas plans to speed up processing of hundreds of thousands of visas