Submission | Mid-year Review of Occupations Lists | June 2018

Submission to the Department of Jobs and Small Business on the mid-year traffic light bulletin – review of occupations lists:

The Australian Chamber submission is a complement to the extensive consultations with the Department of Jobs and Small Business and the Department of Home Affairs. The employer-sponsored component of the migration programme is heavily regulated and very expensive for businesses to access. This regulation, along with important compliance monitoring and enforcement, is sufficient to limit overuse of the programme in all but an isolated few occupations and sponsors. Limiting the number of skilled occupations with access to the employer-sponsored component is a blunt instrument that has denied over the last 12 months many businesses with legitimate skill needs from accessing the workforce they need to be sustainable and grow. The overall objective is to ensure that the migration system is as flexible as possible to meet the needs of the labour market, and to ensure that businesses, no matter where they are located, have the skills they need, when they need them, in order to survive, grow and employ.