Coalition MPs back call for skilled migration system overhaul

International students would be given an easier pathway to residency and fewer restrictions would apply for hiring skilled migrants in the regions under a proposed overhaul.

Joint standing committee on migration chairman Julian Leeser. Picture: AAP

International students would be given an easier pathway to residency and fewer restrictions would apply to the hiring of skilled migrants in the regions under a proposed overhaul of the ­migration system backed by ­Coalition MPs.

A report released by the joint standing committee on migration on Monday also calls for a national agency to be set up that would lead the creation of a ­“dynamic national workforce plan”.

The plan would be developed and regularly updated by a new cross-jurisdictional interagency committee that includes ­“decision-makers” from departments, agencies and the National Skills Commission.

“The plan would co-ordinate the efforts of state and federal governments to ensure Australia’s persistent skills shortages and ­future workforce needs are addressed through Australia’s higher education and vocational education systems, employment services and the skilled migration program,” the report says.

The committee, chaired by Liberal MP Julian Leeser, recommended cutting red tape for skilled migrant visas, including streamlining the visa application system and creating a new, “more flexible” process of identifying workforce shortages.

It also called for a pathway to permanent residency for all ­people who come to Australia on a temporary skills visa.

“The committee recommends that the Department of Home Affairs should change the visa conditions for the short-term stream of the Temporary Skills Shortage visa (subclass 482) to provide a pathway to permanent residency for temporary migrants,” it says.

“All employer-nominated visas should provide the option of a pathway to permanency. The length of time to permanency and the conditions involved may vary from visa to visa with, for instance, applicants in lower skilled occupations taking longer to reach permanency than more highly skilled visa holders.”

Mr Leeser said the report had measures aimed at “cleaning up and streamlining the skilled migration system”.

“Over 500,000 temporary migrants have left Australia since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and the lack of skilled migrants coupled with record low unemployment has led to major skill shortages in many sectors of the Australian economy,” he said.

Labor MP Julian Hill, a committee member, said the report was “a remarkable and blatant repudiation by government members of Peter Dutton‘s tenure as minister for immigration … it’s a complete reversal of his changes to skilled migration”.