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REVIEW FOR SKILLED MIGRATION By Lance Fee,Director Live Downunder UK THE former Minister for the now Department of Immigration and Citizenship, had announced in mid 2006 that the present General Skilled Migration programme would be reviewed with some significant changes possible for 2007. The latest is that there will be no major change for the immediate future. The most likely date for implementing the proposed changes has been tipped to be late 2007, possibly September. The Department has been under significant pressure in the last 12 months from both the trade union movement and employers in respect to the temporary 457 visas that forms the basis of the employer sponsored category of entry and the General Skilled programme. The trade union movement have been critical of the way some employers have exploited temporary workers under the 457 programme, generally those instances have been in a minority of situations, and the Government has now enacted new legislation to sanction employers and agents who knowingly take advantage of workers on a 457 visa. Employers on the other hand have been critical of how narrow the existing General Skilled Migration program is in respect to occupational categories. Apart from major shortages in some of the professional and trade occupations there have been extreme shortages in the semi skilled areas, particularly in the hospitality industry where in some cases restaurants have not been able to open due to a shortage of experienced bar and table staff. Earlier this year the hospitality industry in Western Australia had proposed to Government a plan to allow large numbers of overseas workers in the industry to enter under a short term guest worker programme. Forecasts are that the shortage of skills will continue to hamper Australian employers for some years to come, and the major problem facing them is the lack of qualified trainers for young people entering the workforce. One issue that hopefully will be under consideration is the current age limit of 45 years on applicants for the General Skilled Migration programme; this is certainly a disadvantage to the emerging workforce when looking to acquire skills from more experienced employees. |
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