‘Working holiday visas need overhaul’

The tourism industry is calling for an overhaul of Australia’s working holiday visa program, saying fees are much higher than those imposed by comparable countries.

Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani.

The tourism industry is calling for an overhaul of Australia’s working holiday visa program, saying fees that are much higher than those imposed by comparable countries are deterring backpackers from filling workforce shortages.

The calls follow an appeal from the Business Council earlier this week for permanent migration to automatically rise each year as a percentage of the Australia’s population. The current cap has been boosted from 195,000 to 220,000 for the next two years.

Currently, the cost of a working holiday visa in Australia is $510 for a 12-month visa, with the potential to extend that visa for a second year if the visa-holder works 88 days in a regional area in agriculture, fishing, forestry, construction, or mining.

Tourism and hospitality jobs are excluded from this feature except in Northern Australia, remote, or very remote parts of Australia that have been specifically identified.

Backpackers can apply for working holiday visas in New Zealand for $221 for a 12-month visa, and in the UK the cost of the same visa is $448 for 24 months.

Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani said that while the sector welcomed moves by the federal government to consider changes to age range eligibility for the visa and the number of hours visa-holders can be engaged by any one employer, a more significant overhaul was needed.

“Australia has been non-competitive in this space for too long. In fact, working holidaymakers seeking to come to Australia peaked in 2013, with just over 258,200 visas granted that year,” Ms Mariani said. “We have seen a steady decline of WHV numbers since then, with just 209,036 visas grant in 2019 prior to the pandemic.”

Australian Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said: “(Immigration Minister Andrew) Giles has worked very hard on improving the backlog in the system, and speeding up approvals, and we are seeing results from that, but it’s still not enough in what is such an incredibly competitive global market.”