Permanent migration cap to increase by 35,000

The Minister for Home Affairs Claire O'Neil MP addressed the Jobs and Skills Summit on Friday (2 September 2022), revealing that the government will be increasing the permanent skilled migration rate for 2022/23 from 160,00 places to 195,000.

Ms O'Neil emphasised one of the Labor government’s priorities is to “move away from the focus on short-term migrants”, and going forward on “permanency, citizenship and nation building”.

“Over the last few weeks, the size of the migration program has been a huge focus. We have run more than 100 roundtables, and spoken to so many stakeholders in this room,” Ms O'Neil stated.

“There is nothing in this room without universal support, but an area where almost everyone agrees, is that we need to lift the permanent migration numbers for this year.”

Ms O'Neil suggested that this could lead to “thousands” more nurses and engineers settling into the country this year, based on projections.

Also announced was the increase of state and territory-sponsored visas, up from 11,000 last year to 31,000.

“We’ve made that decision based on the discussions we have had and the urging of the people in this room. That is your voice being reflected,” Ms O'Neil concluded.

The chief executive of the Australian Banking Association (ABA), Anna Bligh, has welcomed the announcement that the permanent migration cap will increase.

The ABA CEO said an increased cap for this financial year in conjunction with visa processing improvements, targeted skills and training programs and policies were “critical” to ensuring that labour vacancies will be filled at all levels.

Ms Bligh stated: “This is a positive step to resolving the acute labour shortages we’re seeing in our economy. 

“Australian banks are eager to support small and medium businesses held back from growing and expanding, this announcement goes some way to addressing the issue.”

Ms Bligh added that the permanent migration cap increase should flow through to “reducing ongoing pressure some businesses are facing”.

“This is a positive step to resolving the acute labour shortages we’re seeing in our economy,” Ms Bligh said.

“Australian banks are eager to support small and medium businesses held back from growing and expanding, this announcement goes some way to addressing the issue.” 

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