Immigration policy sells-out local accountants

Advertisement
ScreenHunter_4248 Sep. 17 07.26

By Leith van Onselen

The AFR has published an article today on the jump in overseas students studying accounting, which has driven local students from the field:

A 40 per cent jump in new overseas postgraduate accounting students in 2013 was the sole driving force in the critical tertiary accounting education market, as local students continued to shun the field.

International students now ­dominate accounting courses, making up a record 79 per cent of the 17,600 enrolled postgraduate students in 2013, according to data from the federal Department of Education.

At the undergraduate level, ­international accounting students made up about 55 per cent of the more than 25,400 enrolled students, a ­percentage that is down from a peak of 64 per cent in 2011.

These fee-paying overseas accounting students, lured to Australia by the promise of a ­high-quality education and a potential pathway to migration, bring in ­significant and much needed revenue to cash-strapped universities…

The desire to immigrate still drives the international education market, according to veteran education agent John Findley, who is also a registered migration agent.

Back in July controversy arose after it was revealed that the Abbott Government had chosen to keep accountants on a list of in-demand occupations for skilled migrants, going against the both the Department of Employment’s and the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency’s (AWPA) recommendations to remove accounting from this list due to significant labour surpluses and “deteriorating outcomes for graduates . . . relatively low pay rates for bachelor graduates and weak employment outcomes for masters graduates”.

Advertisement

By keeping accounting on the skilled occupation list, qualified foreign workers are permitted to apply for a permanent visa into Australia without a sponsor.

In a separate article, The AFR has also revealed today that unemployment has risen significantly for post-graduates – to 15.5% for those with postgraduate diplomas and certificates and 17.9% for those who had completed a masters degree by coursework – with accountants amongst the worst affected.

It is understood that universities, which derive income from international accounting students, and two of the major accounting bodies, which charge foreign accountants fees for membership and ­evaluating qualifications for migration, support keeping the occupation on the list.

Advertisement

While I am a big supporter of increasing education exports – and see them as one of the few areas where Australia is internationally competitive – it should not be used as a back-door pathway to immigration.

The skilled migration program should would be determined solely by a rigorous analysis of need, and should balance the benefits to business and the economy against the costs to unemployed and underemployed Australians.

Yet, to date, we have seen little evidence that the Abbott Government is taking such an approach. As noted above, it has chosen to ignore the advice of the independent AWPA and the Department of Employment – which both believe that Australia has a surplus of accountants – and placed the interests of universities and the major accounting bodies ahead of locals trying to get a job. It has also chosen to disband the AWPA – the body set-up the the former Gillard Government to evaluate what skills Australia has, what we should import and how to develop the necessary skills locally – thus removing one of the few checks-and-balances on Australia’s immigration system.

Advertisement

When added to the loosening of 457 visa requirements announced earlier this month, the Abbott Government seems intent on making it systematically easier to import labour from offshore rather than locally, while at the same time cynically tightening eligibility requirements for under-30s receiving unemployment benefits and raising university fees.

Their approach will deprive our youth of employment opportunities, and is hardly a recipe for social cohesion.

[email protected]

Advertisement

www.twitter.com/leithvo

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.