While the nation grapples with multiple COVID outbreaks imported via returning Australians, the biggest business collective – the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) – has demanded the federal government open Australia’s international border to ‘skilled’ migrants to alleviate so-called skills shortages:
Melbourne-based Raghubir Singh is an experienced motor mechanic who had planned to use his temporary graduate visa to gain work experience so he could eventually realise his dream to live in Australia permanently.
Instead, he is stranded in the northern Indian state of Haryana as his visa ticks down, leaving him with an uncertain future as it is still not known when Australia’s borders will reopen to non-citizens and non-residents.
