Aftermath of the Skill & Job Summit

Now that the much awaited Skill & Job Summit has drawn to a close, here are some changes that will happen:

1. Focus of migration is to shift to permanent migration rather than rely on temporary migration for fill skills shortages.
2. Australia’s permanent migration cap will be increased by 35,000 to 195,000 in this financial year.
3. A two fold approach will be followed- upskilling of Australia’s domestic workforce and development of skilled migration pathways.
4. The visa backlog of 900,000 applications will be cleared by increasing department’s staffing levels. State sponsored places would increase from 11,000 to 31,000  while Regional places would increase to 34,00.
   
   

Further to the above

• An in-depth review of Australian’s migration system was announced. Visa simplification could be on the agenda.
• There were calls for employer sponsorship to be abolished, replaced with industry sponsorship.
• There was widespread support for increasing the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold ( TSMIT)

There was also much criticism of Labour market testing at the Job and Skills Summit , however there was not much talk about abolishing the Skilling Australia Fund Levy or GTE as requirement for student visas or for applicants for Temporary kills shortage visa subclass 482.

We now wait to see what developments will arise as a result of the Summit and how this will impact visa applicants and those in the migration industry in the coming months.

Watch this space for more details….