Decoding Labor's migration game plan
The Albanese government's new migration strategy promises to reduce the number of arrivals in Australia. Now comes the hard part: making it work.
The federal government’s new migration strategy has been largely welcomed by the business community, with the startup and tech sectors particularly encouraged by changes making it much easier for them to bring in skilled workers. But questions still remain about the veracity of the forecasts underpinning the new plan, and the government’s ability to smoothly implement it.
The proposed changes include removing onerous occupation lists for all jobs with an annual salary of more than $135,000 (excluding tradespeople). On top of this, startups backed by a registered venture capital fund will gain access to the gold-plated “accredited sponsors” scheme, enabling them to more easily hire highly paid skilled workers.
On the flipside, the government will crack down on other temporary migrants, such as international students, the rates of which have exploded in the wake of the pandemic. Net migration levels can’t remain at current levels for practical reasons — we don’t have enough housing — and for political reasons — Australians are starting to rebel against migration during a cost-of-living crisis.
Net migration rose to a whopping 510,000 in 2022-23. While this has been blamed on a Covid catch up, that doesn’t fully explain the increase. Net migration, and temporary migrants such as international students, would have continued at levels higher than they were before the pandemic without a major intervention. For example, without any changes to the system, net migration was predicted to hit 305,000 in 2024-25 — still well above the long-term historical average of 235,000.
