Australia government to continue working on cutting net migration, hiking minimum pay for skilled workers

Australia's immigration policy under PM Anthony Albanese's Labour government will continue to prioritise skilled workers to meet market needs while curbing net migration. With the Labour Party's re-election, the country will continue on its path of reducing net-migration, increasing salary thresholds for skilled visa programmes, and raising visa fees for international students.

The Indian diaspora is the second largest in Australia, with over 8.5 lakh Indian-born residents as of June 2023 - more than twice the number of 3.8 lakh as on June 30, 2013.

However, tighter visa norms have seen annual visa allotments drop. In 2023-24, only 50,516 student visas were issued to Indian nationals, down from 1.02 lakh in the previous year. Similarly, the number of temporary skilled employment visas issued had dropped from 27,402 to 18,397.

In Dec 2023, the Australian government announced that net migration will be halved within two years from a record high of 5.1 lakh by imposing tougher tests on international students and focusing on workers with high skills attuned to market needs. The net overseas migration numbers were projected to fall to 2,50,000 in 2024-25; followed by 2,55,000 in 2025-26 and 2,35,000 in 2026-27.

Teresa Liu, managing partner (Australia & New Zealand) at Fragomen, a global immigration law firm, said, "We expect the current set of reforms on the Skilled Visa Program and the migration strategy reform agenda to continue. The main takeaway for aspiring employees and indeed employers or Indian businesses doing business in Australia, is that from a policy perspective, it is largely business as usual. However, the more 'mundane' or expected changes in occupation lists and salary thresholds are expected to be announced in July."

Last Dec, Australia introduced the 'Skills-in-demand' visa and replaced the earlier regime. This visa offers pathways for 'specialist', 'core', and 'essential' skills occupations. As part of ongoing reforms, salary thresholds for the core skills occupations will rise from AUD 73,150 to AUD 76,515, while the specialist skills income threshold will rise from AUD 135,000 to AUD 141,210. These changes will impact employers and prospective employees, requiring them to plan ahead, added Liu.

Last year, the Australia government failed in its earlier attempt to cap student intake, however, an increase in visa fees come July seems imminent. The current fee of AUD 1,600 was set in July 2024, which was a 125% increase from the previous fee of AUD 710. Their revised outlook includes a plan to increase the application fee for an Australian study visa by AUD 400 to stand at AUD 2,000.