Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says Australia’s immigration system ‘not working’ for migrants or business

Australia’s immigration system is not working for migrants, business, or the country, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil warns.

She said a four-month review — announced by the Federal Government last week — to look into the nation’s migration system would focus on speeding up visa processing times for bringing in skilled workers.

There are more than 800,000 migration and temporary visa applications still waiting to be processed as the country battles with a skills shortages crisis.

Last week, The West Australian revealed the extent of the shortages in WA, with almost 1000 nursing positions and more than 5000 mining-based jobs advertised in the State each month.

Childcare workers make up about 710 vacancies a month, with the day-to-day trades also feeling the heat being mechanics, electricians and construction workers.

Ms O’Neil said a series of proposals for bringing in skilled workers, such as getting rid of the skills list and introducing minimum salary thresholds would be considered as part of the review.

“(Our) system is genuinely in a state of disrepair. It has no strategy — we have got enormous complexity in the system. (There’s) literally hundreds of different visa categories and sub-categories,” Ms O’Neil told the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.

“It’s expensive, it’s complicated, it is bureaucratic. It’s not working for migrants, for business, or for the country. When we look at Australia’s future we have really big challenges we are facing.”

The Labor Minister said most of the past decade the conversation had been about how to keep people out of Australia.

“We are in a global competition to attract the talent that we need for the future with the US, Canada, New Zealand and all the other countries rolling out the red carpet,” she said.

“It can take two or three years to get a visa to come here and then we will only let you stay for a couple of years and then send you back again.

“We have to think about this as a competitive mindset where we want Australians to be a destination of choice and that’s not what the migration system is doing at the moment.”

Ms O’Neil also reaffirmed a decision to scrap temporary protection visas, but would not yet commit to a timeframe for when and how it would take place.

“We have a number of people living in Australia on temporary protection visas who have been here for more than a decade,” Ms O’Neil sad.

“We are working through it slowly and carefully.”

Under the terms of reference, the goal of the review is to “develop a holistic strategy that articulates the purpose, structure and objectives of Australia’s migration system to ensure it meets the national interest in the coming decades”.

An interim report will be given to Ms O’Neil on February 28 and will contain priority recommendations for next year’s Federal Budget in May.