Migration Amendment (Strengthening Sponsorship and Nomination Processes) Bill 2024 - Submission by the Australian Council of Trade Unions to the

Skills in Demand Visa The Bill implements the commitment made in the Migration Strategy to introduce a new temporary skilled work visa to replace the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa: the new Skills in Demand visa, by legislating the income thresholds and indexation for the proposed streams of the new visa and a public register of employer sponsors to facilitate worker mobility. [...] This pathway is yet to be developed, but the Migration Strategy notes that the arrangements in this pathway would be ‘sector-specific, capped, embedded with stronger regulation and minimum standards and subject to further advice from Jobs and Skills Australia and its tripartite mechanisms.’2 The Bill amends the Migration Act to implement the Skills in Demand visa through legislating the two income. [...] This effectively froze the TSMIT at $53,900 for the next decade, enabling employers to sponsor an increasing number of low-wage workers – the Grattan Institute noted in a 2022 report that the TSMIT of $53,900 was lower than the wages earned by more than 80% of full time workers.6 The Grattan Institute notes that as a result of the failure to index the TSMIT, an additional 500,000 full-time jobs in. [...] The Albanese Government took the welcome step in response to the Migration Review of raising the TSMIT to $70,000 from 1 July 2023, which restored the TSMIT to approximately where it would have been if it had been indexed over the previous decade. [...] The Government committed in the Migration Strategy to rename the TSMIT to the Core Skills Income Threshold, to index it annually, and legislate the indexation of income thresholds to maintain system integrity.8 Raising the TSMIT and indexing it annually is a key measure to restore integrity and trust and prevent the skilled migration system being undermined in the future.