Australia Immigration Policy Reform

Each year, the Australian Government introduces new immigration policies. Immigration policy reform involves revising and improving Australia’s immigration system. These reforms are introduced to respond to Australia’s changing labour, social, economic and demographic needs.

The Purpose of Immigration Policy Reform

Immigration policy needs to keep up with Australia’s changing needs. Immigration policy reform aims to create an efficient and effective migration system with the main goal being to:

• Address skills shortages
• Promote innovation
• Support regional development
• Simplify the migration system
• Promote sustainable migration levels

In order to support the above goals, migration planning levels, changes to visa programs and alignment with the labour market are the main areas of the migration process that are considered when immigration policy is reviewed.

Migration Planning Levels

Each year, the number of permanent migrants allowed into Australia is reviewed. These planning levels aim to align with Australia’s economic and social objectives such as filling skills shortages and supporting infrastructure development.

Visa Programs

• Visa programs are reviewed to ensure they are meeting Australia’s economic and demographic needs. Reforms may include adjustments to:
• Skilled and Temporary Visas (tightening or broadening eligibility criteria, changing English language or skills requirements etc)
• Permanent Residency Pathways

Labour Market Needs

Labour market needs significantly influence immigration policy reforms. Reforms are often introduced to address skills shortages or economic needs and introduce changes to skilled occupation lists.

These are all crucial elements of Australia’s migration system; however, immigration policy reform often neglects to address the factors that can have an impact on the overall migration system.

The Issues with the Current Immigration Policy Reform Process

While it’s crucial that immigration policy reform is reviewed regularly and amended to reflect the needs of Australia, the process and factors that are considered when reviewing immigration policy need to be revised.

For the most part, visas are the main focus of policy reform. Visas are an essential part of immigration policy but there are other elements of the immigration process that need to be reviewed and are often overlooked.

The immigration process in Australia is influenced by a combination of government policy, administrative systems and individual applicant factors. Taking this into account you could say that the visa application process is dictated by policy, legal and administrative elements.

Immigration policy reform is primarily based on policy and legal elements however, when it comes to the visa application process, administration plays a big part. When reviewing immigration policy reform, the administrative element needs greater scrutiny. Skills assessment processing is just one of the tasks that falls heavily into the administrative element of the visa application process.

Currently there are extensive delays in skills assessment processing. Foreign workers are unable to apply for a skilled visa until they receive an outcome on their skills assessment. These delays are causing a bottleneck effect when it comes to visa application processing.

These excessive wait times are partly due to a limited number of authorised skills assessment organisations tasked with providing skills assessments for migration purposes. The backlog of skills assessment applications waiting to be processed is excessive. Currently, there are reported delays of up to nine months. These delays have an impact on industries that are reliant on foreign workers to meet current demand.

Taking skills assessments into consideration when it comes to immigration policy reform will identify the shortfalls in the skills assessment system and help rectify these issues to make the skills assessment process more efficient.

Skills assessment reforms may see the Australian Government take steps to help alleviate the pressure on skills assessment processing, such as:

• Authorising more authorities per occupation to conduct skills assessments
• Allowing offshore professional bodies to provide fast-tracked skills and trade equivalence
• Recognising reputable foreign bodies for direct skills transfers
• Allowing private sector involvement at certain stages of the skills assessment process

The aim of immigration policy reform is to improve the systems and processes currently in place. By reviewing all aspects of the migration process and improving the factors that are letting the process down, Australia’s migration program can improve significantly.

To learn more about any aspect of migration, contact the team of experienced registered migration agents at Visa Solutions Australia. Book a consultation.

Read more: How does migration law happen?