Skilled migrants offered citizenship to plug labour gaps

About 20,000 temporary skilled migrants who stayed through the pandemic will be offered a pathway to citizenship, in a bid to address the severe worker shortfall in critical industries.

OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann. Picture: Getty Images

About 20,000 temporary skilled migrants who stayed through the pandemic will be offered a path to citizenship in a bid to ­address ­severe labour shortages in critical industries.

The concessions will be a boost for the health and hospitality sectors, which each have about 2000 affected visa holders. Of the 20,000 people who may benefit from the arrangements, up to 70 per cent are employed in the highest skilled occupation category. Amid a global war for talent as international travel resumes, OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann threw his weight behind Australia returning to a “strong” migration program once borders reopened.

Mr Cormann, who migrated from Belgium to Australia in the early 1990s and became our longest serving finance minister, said he was “a great believer in the beneficial impact of migration”.

With business groups calling for a major boost to the skilled ­migration program to plug gaps in the labour market, the Paris-based Mr Cormann said “the specific ­decisions in terms of level of ­migration – these are going to be judgments for the Australian government to make”. “But as a principle, I’m very supportive of strong levels of migration,” he said.

The amendments to the temporary skills shortages visa (subclass 482) will see visa holders in the “short term” stream offered a direct path to permanent residence. The measures will also apply to holders of the discontinued 457 visa, including those who did not meet age requirements.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said the change “recognises the economic value-add of these critical workers, and how ­retaining them will greatly assist in Australia’s economic recovery”.

In a recorded speech and question and answer session delivered to the Lowy Institute on Wednesday evening, Mr Cormann also stressed the importance of OECD countries being able to work with China, despite the differences they might have with the increasingly assertive Asian nation.

“An issue like climate change will only be able to be addressed effectively if the US, China, India and others are around the table,” he said. “So there’s a whole range of areas where it is very clear that we must find ways to effectively co-operate.”

As relations with China hit new lows, Chinese President Xi Jinping this week used a speech to the ­Association of Southeast Asian Nations as an opportunity to criticise Australia’s new security pact with the US and Britain, known as AUKUS.

Mr Cormann conceded that despite the pressing need to work with China, there were “lines in the sand” that democratic governments should not cross.

“The OECD is an organisation that brings together market-based democracies that share a commitment to democracy, human rights, rule of law, market-based economic principles. And the political and economic system in China is different. And inevitably, there will be pressure points from time to time,” he said.

“The key is going to be to work through those in as positive and constructive a way as possible. But also to be very clear on, you know, where it is important to stand up for our interest and to draw lines in the sand. And I think that that’s going to require appropriate balancing, you know, for some time to come.”

Mr Cormann said “developed economies have a responsibility to do more” to vaccinate the developing world.

“It’s not just charity, either,” he said. “It’s self-interest, ­because we won’t have sustained health protection until such time as we’ve got a properly comprehensive global coverage of vaccinations.

“The economic recovery will remain at risk until such time as we’ve got appropriate global coverage of vaccinations. And in the end, our biggest risk continues to be further waves of infection.”