Employment & skills update | 23 June 2023

23 Jun 2023

Startup Year loans
Startup year legislation passed Parliament this week. From 2024 in the first-year pilot, up to 1,000 eligible students will be able to access a new form of Higher Education Loan Program assistance, STARTUP-HELP, and participate in a higher education-based accelerator program.  Students will be able to access loans of $11,800 through the program.

Following on from the announcement by Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles in early June around a new suite of measures in the migration space – most had already been flagged in April’s Migration Review, today the government introduced legislation into Parliament. Unfortunately there was no consultation around the legislation prior to its introduction. ACCI will review the documents over the coming days, see here. 

The legislation covers will:

  • make it a criminal offence to coerce someone into breaching their visa conditions
  • introduce prohibition notices to stop employers from further hiring people on temporary visas where they have exploited migrants
  • increase penalties and new compliance tools to deter exploitation, and
  • repeal section 235 of the Migration Act, which has undermined the reporting of exploitative behaviour. 






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