Labor ‘too slow’ in axing Covid-era visa

Over 175,000 international students and temporary workers are having their stays in Australia extended under a special Covid-era permit.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says the government was attempting to put downward pressure on the amount of long-term arrivals to Australia through phasing out Covid visas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

More than 175,000 international students and temporary workers are having their stays in Australia extended under a special Covid-era permit, sparking accusations the Albanese government has taken too long to close down the emergency pandemic measure.

As the federal government moves to tighten its migration settings, The Australian can reveal Labor has granted more than 100,000 pandemic working visas in the past four months.

This is a significant increase on the 66,000 Covid work visas Labor approved in its first 10 months since the election last May.

The Covid-19 pandemic event visa (subclass 408) allows people to work in any sector of the economy, even if there were not labour shortages in that industry.

Labor has granted 175,617 pandemic work visas since it was elected, and the Albanese govern­ment has processed more Covid-19 special work visas than the ­Coalition approved in the 20 months before international borders began reopening in Nov­ember 2021.

Labor has pledged to shut down the visa by February following calls from the international education industry to end the pandemic permit.

It was first brought in to enable temporary migrants to lawfully remain in Australia while the border was closed.

With net migration levels at more than 450,000 in the year to March, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said the government was attempting to put downward pressure on the amount of long-term arrivals to Australia through phasing out Covid visas and capping the number of hours international students can work.

In a speech in Sydney on Monday, Mr Giles said the government would publish updated migration forecasts before the end of the year, and that high levels of migration in the past year were due to a rebound from Covid restrictions.

Ahead of the release of the government’s migration strategy, Mr Giles said: “The rebound from those historically low numbers include some migrants coming to Australia now, who would otherwise have come here to study or work when the border was closed.”

Former senior immigration official Abul Rizvi urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to bring forward the closure of the Covid visa amid concern there had been an explosion of entrants in the past few months. Mr Rizvi has called for the temporary visa to be abolished, warning it was being exploited as a backroom way for international students to get full work rights.

The government’s policy had been rorted by international students opting to switch out of longer courses for shorter, aged-care vocational paths to gain citizenship, he said.

“I am worried about the explosion of this visa because I fear many of the people on it will find it difficult to go back to other visas, like student visas, and they will just be stuck in immigration limbo,” Mr Rizvi said. “The Labor Party have moved too slowly on this, the changes they have made are sensible but they made them nine months too late.”

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said Labor should have shut down the visa program in August as he accused the government of “making a mess out of immigration”.

“Labor has no idea what is going on with immigration; the minister claims they are managing the number of arrivals at the same time they’re issuing 175,000 Covid work visas and the scheme is still open,” Mr Tehan said.

“Migration is running at record levels and it’s been 18 months and the government still hasn’t responded to its immigration review.

“Labor is running a Big Australia with no plan to deal with the ­impact on housing, rent, con­gestion, government services and the environment.”

International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said the government should have closed down the visa much sooner amid concern it was being “abused” by people seeking full work rights.

“Clearly, it would have been helpful if the government closed off this Morrison government legacy much sooner,” he said. “The previous government brought it in in order to provide a workforce for corporate Australia and it was clear many months ago that this was being abused and the consequences of this full-time work rights visa (have) already negatively impacted on quality education providers.”