After the Albanese government announced that the immigration cap would be raised to 195,000 places, an additional 35,000 persons will be allowed to immigrate permanently to Australia this year.
On Friday, the second day of the jobs and skills conference, home affairs minister Clare O'Neil announced the decision, promising it will bring "thousands more" engineers and nurses in to address severe labour shortages.
The Albanese government also disclosed plans to speed up the visa application process and combat the exploitation of migrant workers.
The government will spend $36.1 million to hire 500 more employees in the home affairs division, according to immigration minister Andrew Giles, in order to reduce the 900,000-application backlog.
Jim Chalmers, the treasurer, had earlier promised that the new migration cap would not be used as a "replacement for training" and called it a "cautious and sensible increase to permanent migration."
Asserting that Labor will "move away from the focus on short-term migrants, toward permanency, citizenship, and country building," O'Neil told the conference that there was nearly "universal" support for increasing immigration levels.
According to O'Neil, approximately 34,000 of the 195,000 maximum positions for the 2022–23 fiscal year will be in the regions, an increase of 9,000.
To our state and territory premiers: "Under the state and territory allocations, we are building in a substantial jump — from 11,000 last year to 31,000."
O'Neil promised that graduates from international students will be allowed to "work in Australia for longer."
She added that the Covid initiative to remove limits on temporary workers residing in Australia will be continued until June 2023. "While the skills crisis is so severe, we need it to continue, but we also need it to cease."
Businesses applauded the migration cap rise, which Andrew McKellar, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called a "major step forward" and a "really excellent move."
Giles agreed that the pay floor for temporary skilled migration needed to be raised, but he did not propose a new floor.
McKellar said that the floor, which is currently frozen at $53,000 since 2013, should be lifted, but he rejected unions' demand that it be raised to the median full-time pay of $90,000.
Giles stated in 2023 that the government would "further work" on employer-sponsored visas and will implement new legislation to address the exploitation of migrant workers.
The average wait time for a skilled visa dropped from 53 days to 42 days in July, he said, citing the government's initiatives to speed up the visa processing process that had already reduced the number of people waiting from around 1 million to 900,000.
He promised that the backlog will be addressed as he announced the additional manpower increase in processing.
"Waiting times will keep getting shorter. We'll deal with this problem while working to put Australia in a position to reach its full potential as a nation united in its diversity.
Dominic Perrottet, the premier of New South Wales, gave his approval for the announcements and told the summit that Australia needed to move quickly because waiting times for visas in countries like Canada, which are comparable, were just "weeks," not months, long.
We do need an increase in migration numbers, but we'll see what the government actually delivers since this might take many months, if not a couple of years in the making, Dutton told reporters on the Gold Coast.
In response to a "major rise in the migration program," he remarked that Australians are "finding it hard to find rented accommodation" and urged the government to explain where foreigners would dwell.
The opposition leader encouraged Labor to accept his suggestion so that seniors may work longer hours without having their pensions reduced.
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