Australia to shorten skilled worker migration list
Updated
The Australian Government has announced a dramatic overhaul of Australia's skilled migration programme. The move will affect thousands of overseas students in Australia, hoping to study their way to permanent residency. Effective from today, the government will revoke the list of jobs where skilled migrants are most needed. The list - known as the Migration Occupations in Demand List - will be shortened and re-issued later this year.
Presenter: Sabra Lane
Speaker: Chris Evans, Australia's Immigration Minister
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LANE: The Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans says he's making a number of major changes to reset the bar for the Australia's independent skilled migration scheme. He says the program hasn't been focussed enough on filling skill shortages.
EVANS: I think they're a very major reform. It's about changing the system from one which is supply driven, that is people choosing to come, to us getting the people that the economy demands. So it's taking back control of immigration program in my view.
LANE: Effective from today, he's revoking the Migration Occupations in Demand List, known as MODL. That list previously set 106 occupations as the priority areas where skilled migrants were needed.
EVANS: The list had become wieldy and outdated. There are far too many occupations on it and it wasn't reflecting the needs of the economy. So we are going to get a much smaller list, a skilled occupation list. It will be devised by Skills Australia and they will plan the sort of people we need, the skills we need and the economy to match the local training and education efforts. So we think we will target in on the people whose skills we need much better than we are currently.
LANE: Is one of the problems that you have had too many international students studying here for occupations on that list but once they have gained their permanent residency they have left that particular occupation?
EVANS: Look, there is no doubt that MODL is distorting the choices international students were making. That it was driving what they studied so we had thousands of, tens of thousands of students studying cookery and accounting and hairdressing because that was on the list, those subjects were on the list and that got them through to permanent residency. The MODL was distorting what was occurring both in terms of the education system and the migration system and this will hopefully fix that.
LANE: The Minister says the changes won't affect international students coming to Australia to gain qualifications, who then return home. Overseas students who are training now for a job that's not on the revised list and who want to become permanent residents, will have until the end of next year, to find an employer to sponsor them. Are you expecting a backlash from students?
EVANS: Look, some may well be disappointed.
LANE: The international education sector in Australia has gone through a rought trot. Are you anticipating that other colleges may close as a result of these changes?
EVANS: Look, I think there'll be some adjustment. I think, though, the point i've always tried to make is we don't run the migration programme to meet the educational industry's needs. I think quality education providers will still be able to sell an education product.
SABRA LANE: The points test used to assess migrants for permanent residency will also be revamped and reissued later this year, and the Minister wants new laws to give him the power to cap visas for particular jobs. The Government's also announced today that it's rejected the applications of 20,000 would-be general skilled migrants, who'd lodged their applications before September 2007. Senator Evans says the rules have changed and the Government will refund their application fees, costing $AU14 million.
EVANS: They were accepted at a time when the English language standards were lower, the schools requirements were lower and because of the priority processing changes I made last year, effectively they were unable to migrate, they were not going to get far enough up the list to be selected so we're doing the right thing by them and refunding their application charge. If they've got the right skills and qualifications, they can apply again. But effectively they're a group that probably wouldn't get in under the current rules.
