Statement from the Lord Mayor
Australia’s skilled migration intake has been a hot topic among major Melbourne employers in the lead up to the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra this week.
There seems to be a growing consensus that the Albanese government should, and will, increase the migration cap to 200,000 per year for at least two years to address chronic skills shortages.
I am supportive of the mooted increase as I continue to witness first-hand the number of businesses in Melbourne that are reducing hours and limiting output due to labour shortages. Many business owners have done it tough during the pandemic – we need partnerships between three levels of government to help them recover.
However, as a Resolve Strategic survey by showed, most Australians want the summit to focus on wages and the cost of living rather than policies to bring in more workers from overseas.
This means the government needs to work out how to increase migration while increasing real wages. Voters won’t accept one without the other – and we desperately need both. The issues are not mutually exclusive if productivity is lifted as a result.
There is another solution the jobs summit should consider as an alternative or addition to increasing this cap. As the leader of Australia’s biggest student city, I’m convinced it would be far easier and more effective to amend visa conditions to keep more international students here once they have completed their studies.
Similar initiatives have been successfully implemented overseas, proving this solution could garner almost immediate impact where it’s needed. The United Kingdom last year introduced a new graduate visa, allowing international students who had completed their degree to stay and work in the UK for two years and those that have completed a PhD for three. This is predicted to attract 600,000 international students into the country’s universities and workforces by 2030.
The previous government told this cohort to “go home” when the pandemic hit. Students who chose to remain were locked out of JobKeeper and JobSeeker.
These actions have tainted Australia’s reputation as a global student-friendly destination and mean we need to act now to welcome more international students.
Keeping more international students in Australia after their studies has several advantages in addition to easing our labour shortages. Economically, attracting more international students encourages growth in our education sector, which is one of our largest export earning industries. Growing our population also creates more customers, resulting in higher consumption growth, which we need after our nation’s borders were closed for so long.
The Business Council of Australia has called for an increase in skilled migration to combat Australia’s worsening economic landscape. Work visas for international students have an exponential impact: they attract more international students to our country as consumers and as workers while they study; and then retain them as the qualified workers we so direly need.
Our current system is cumbersome. We educate international students and welcome them into our communities. We then send them home fully qualified. Then we try to attract them back to Australia as skilled migrants. We simply do not have time to waste on an illogical and frustrating back-and-forth.
Most importantly of all, these students have already settled into Australia with valuable experiences and connections. They are our neighbours, friends, customers, colleagues, volunteers and employees. By choosing to study here, they have shown desire and commitment to contribute and connect with Australia.
In this global competitive market, post-pandemic, we’re mad to educate them and send them away.
They must know loud and clear: we want you.
That’s why, as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne and as a member of the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors we are calling on the government to provide international students with access to a four-year post-study work visa. We also call for clearer pathways to permanent residency for those who maintain work over this period.
Immediate action is required to ensure international students come to study and stay to work in Australia.
The Albanese government has a golden opportunity to redeem Australia in the eyes of international students who are still bristling from being told “it’s time to go home” by emphatically inviting them to “stay here”.
