All the commentary coming from the new Albanese Government suggests that it is chomping at the bit to restore the ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration policy that Australians hate.
The latest salvo comes from Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, who has vowed to make Australia an internationally competitive destination for skilled workers and to streamline visa application rules:
“There’s a huge backlog…. the previous government’s neglect of the immigration portfolio has had far-reaching consequences,” Mr Giles said.
“One of the things that is particularly apparent is the challenge of restarting the immigration program after the effective pause that the pandemic created is something that the previous government failed to even attempt to deal with”…
Mr Giles said faster approvals were required to help fill a record 423,500 job vacancies…
“Our focus can’t just be about reducing the backlog,” he told the Financial Review. “We need to deliver a visa system that’s fit for purpose”…
“We can’t pretend that our visa offerings exist in isolation. We need to look at how they compare to the other countries, particularly those that are effectively our competitors in contests for talent… We need strong action to address that”.
There you have it straight from the horses mouth. Labor is about to ram open the immigration floodgates to ‘skilled’ foreign workers in a bit to drive competition into the labour market and crush wage growth.
I have no problem with Labor streamlining visa application rules provided it lifts the Temporary Skilled Migrant Income Threshold (TSMIT) from its current appallingly low level of $53,900. This TSMIT is $29,100 below the median Australian full-time salary of $83,000, which itself is pulled down by unskilled workers. In turn, the TSMIT has turned the ‘skilled’ temporary visa program into an unskilled one chock full of low-paid workers.
Therefore, the Albanese Government should immediately set the TSMIT 10% above the median full-time salary and then let businesses have at it.
Setting the TSMIT at this level, rather than the current level of $53,900, would ensure that businesses only hire migrant workers to fill genuinely skilled professions. It also has the support of the union movement.
By raising the quality bar, these reforms would also reduce immigration flows, which is what Australians want, while maximising benefits to the economy and federal budget.
Of course, we all know business groups will never support lifting the TSMIT to a genuinely skilled level as it would undermine their true motivation of destroying the bargaining power of workers and suppressing wages to maximise profits.
The question for Labor is: will it side with the business lobby or unions on skilled migration? Will it finally lift the TSMIT to skilled levels, or run a low-skilled visa system in disguise?
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also Chief Economist and co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
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