Some positive possible updates to the Australian Migration System

man in white dress shirt sitting beside woman in black long sleeve shirt

On 23 November 2022, the Joint Standing Committee on Migration (JSCM) accepted the request from the then Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon. Clare O’Neil MP, to inquire into the role of permanent migration in nation building.
The committee completed the final report from this inquiry in September 2024 and it was released to the general public on 9 October 2024.

The JCSM has made 73 recommendations to the Minister for Home Affairs designed to improve the operation of the Australian migration system in order to enhance its nation building capacity into the future.

These recommendations included:

  • the reestablishment of a stand-alone Department of Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs
  • initiate mechanisms that will reduce visa backlogs, modernise and simplify the visa system.
  • abolish current skills list in favour of Jobs and Skills Australia lists
  • increase ENS age limits to 50 and exempt certain cohorts from application age limits
  • abolish Labour Market Testing
  • improve skills and qualification recognition for migrants and particularly for refugees
  • increase refugee employment assistance and services
  • reassess definitions of regional Australia and increase the promotion and incentives for regional settlement
  • review the DAMA and Labour Agreement programs
  • changes to the health requirements to simplify the public interest criteria, increase of the significant cost threshold, remove specialist education costs from the definition of community service costs
  • develop more appropriate visa settings for the family stream particularly for parents

The full report on the JCSM’s Inquiry webpage.


ANZSCO changing to OSCA in December 

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) have announced that while maintaining comparability, each country will introduce their own tailored occupational statistical classifications.

This will allow each agency to maintain separate but aligned classifications, with localised adaptations to better reflect the contemporary labour market and meet stakeholder needs.

For Australia, the new classification will be called the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), 2024, version 1.0 and will be released on Friday 6 December 2024. 

 The drivers for change are the following:

  • The difference between Australia’s and New Zealand’s labour markets is greater than when a joint classification began in 2006.
  • Stats NZ has been unable to participate in the targeted 2021 and 2022 Australian updates, and the comprehensive review of the classification undertaken by the ABS over the past four years.
  • ABS and Stats NZ have identified different solutions to meet stakeholder demand.

Even though ANZSCO will change to OSCA in December, ANZSCO will continue to be available on the ABS website.

 

/by