Daily Archives: April 23, 2017

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has signalled he is willing to compromise on the Turnbull government's toughforeign labour regime, assuring universities they won't be hamstrung by newwork experience requirements.

Vice-chancellors, academics and the powerful Group of Eight universities were alarmed the Turnbull government's abolition of the 457 visa may prevent them hiring overseas researchers straight out of a PhD program.

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Antique dealer, jockey and judge are just some of the occupations now unavailable to foreign workers after the Turnbull government announced the abolition of the 457 visa program.

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Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has stepped in to defend Tony Abbott, calling on his Liberal Party colleagues to show respect to the former prime minister. Vision: ABC TV/Insiders.

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In a fiery interview on ABC television on Sunday, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton declared 'there are facts that I have that you don't' as he refused to resile from his assertions that appeared to blame asylum seekers for last week's violent outburst on Manus Island. Vision: ABC TV/Insiders.

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In a joint press conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, US Vice President Mike Pence says the Trump administration will honour a controversial refugee deal with Australia - even though it does not 'admire' the deal.

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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has posted this video on Facebook saying his government is standing up for Australian jobs and values.

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Mr Pence thanked Australia for calling on China to exert more pressure on North Korea to ends its nuclear weapons program and he says the Trump administration and its allies will "deal" with North Korea if China does not.

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The US Vice-President has arrived in Sydney for talks with Malcolm Turnbull, with growing military tensions on the Korean peninsula expected to dominate his three-day visit to Australia.

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Liz Kaelin and Annie Parker are the human faces of how the crackdown on 457 visas is hurting Australian technology entrepreneurs.

Antique dealer, jockey and judge are just some of the occupations now unavailable to foreign workers after the Turnbull government announced the abolition of the 457 visa program.

In a letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Go8 chairman Peter Hoj warned the changes could be "extremely damaging" to Australia's reputation for welcoming international academics.

Particular concern surrounded the introduction of a two-year work experience prerequisitefor temporary work visas, which universities feared would stop them hiring researchers who had spent their adulthood studying.

A spokeswoman for Mr Dutton told Fairfax Media it was not the government's intention to stop universities bringing talent into the country, and the new rules would be flexible.

"Universities will continue to be able to attract the best and brightest minds from Australia and the world," she said.

"The government recognises that work experience may take different forms for different occupations, such as research and teaching experience accumulated by PhDs.

"The government will work with the university sector to define what constitutes work for this cohort."

Belinda Robinson, chief executive of peak body Universities Australia, welcomed the development and said high-level talks with the government indicated it was prepared to compromise.

The election of Donald Trump as US President, and the fallout from Brexit, have prompted scores of overseas academics to express interest in moving to Australian universities.

Ms Robinson said it was "absolutelycrucial" Australia stood ready to exploit "the window of opportunity that we have" to attract new talent.

"We want to encourage them, not deter them," she said.

Sydney University quantum physicist MichaelBiercuk, who came to Australia on a 457 visa and has been a vocal critic of the changes, said the newfound flexibility was "a great first step in alleviating our concerns".

The other major sticking point with universities is the government's intention to exclude the job of university lecturer froma rebadged Medium and Long-Term Strategic Skills List.

That means from March next yearacademics would be ineligible for a four-year temporary work visa andthe popular Employer Nomination Scheme, which grants successful applicants permanent residency in Australia.

The lure of permanent residency was a vital incentive for senior academics who were interested in working at Australian universities, the sector has told the government.

Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Go8, said this needed to be fixed quickly "so as not to send the wrong signals into the global market place".

Earlier in the weekMr Dutton said temporary work visas, including for university lecturers, must target areas where there was a genuine skill shortage in Australia.

"Hopefully that lecturer then provides a passage of those skills to people under the lecturer and we train up and provide more support around training a local workforce," he told ABC Radio.

"So that when the position is next advertised or when we need to expand that business or that employment arrangement at the university, we can have those people that have been locally trained."

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Peter Dutton signals room to move on work visas for universities - The Sydney Morning Herald

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Aussie dreams have not turned sour yet, say experts The Hindu As worried parents reach out to education consultants and immigration experts to understand the dynamics of the 457 visa abolition, experts say international students who wish to look for jobs after their education fall under the 485 post-study work ... Meet the people in your city that could be affected by the ... - ABCABC Online all 23 news articles »

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Aussie dreams have not turned sour yet, say experts - The Hindu

Rob Hango-Zada, co-Founder and co CEO of Shippit, Zhong Zheng - developer (and 457 holder) and William On co-founder and co-CEO of the company. "we just incentivising offshoring", says Hango-Zada

The federal government's abolition of the decades-old 457 visa system was first and foremost a piece of political theatre.

But it was the government's intense 'Australians first' rhetoric and its swathe of new limitations, caveats and seemingly arbitrary occupation lists that threw employers into tumult and uncertainty.

Business leaders and migration experts say the Coalition's position marks a significant shift in the way the country views skilled labour and comes at a critical time, when the economy is seeking to attract talent in its shift from a manufacturing economy to a services economy.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of leading technology company Atlassian, told AFR Weekend it was the government's rhetoric, rather than the visa changes themselves, that threatened to create a "brain of drain" of skilled foreign workers.

He said talented prospective hires were already anxiously querying "does Australia even want me?" and questioning whether to make the big trip overseas.

Rob Hango-Zada, co-CEO and co-founder of software start-up Shippit, which coordinates retail deliveries, said he already struggled to recruit quality, mid to senior level engineering talent in Australia.

"We're going through a transition phase. But with the dot-com bubble bursting in the early noughties, we've seen a decline in the number of engineering or computer science-focused majors and what that's has left us with now, going through a second boom, is a shortage of talent locally."

While he believed his business would be able to survive the changes - the most nominated ICT jobs are still among the eligible visa occupations - Hango-Zada said he was concerned about the broader statement the government was making on Australia's innovation agenda.

"If you look at web developers [a job no longer eligible for visas], if you remove that facility, then basically you're asking business owners to look at [sending work to] offshore based options if there is a local skills gap in web development.

"My concern is are we just incentivising offshoring rather than creating Australia as a destination for international skilled workers to fill gaps that we have."

The coalition's startling backflip on the issue, after years of championing a flexible visa system, combined with Labor's calling for greater restrictions, may overshadow the benefits the skilled worker visas offered the economy.

Australian National University researcher Henry Sherrell said while it should be remembered 457 visa workers make up less than 1 per cent of the labour force, any restrictions could have flow-on effects on productivity.

Skilled visa holders earn an average $88,500 base salary and $92,000 total remuneration, which was above average full time earnings.

"As a proxy, that salary shows they are highly skilled and valued by their employers," he said.

A Migration Council report in 2013 also found that temporary migrants didn't just fill skills shortages but also improved skills deficits by training local workers.

More than three-quarters or 76 per cent of 457 visa holders said in a survey they helped to train or develop other workers.

The report concluded the 457 visa program was "critical in keeping us competitive in the era of international knowledge wars, when industry innovation is global".

"These type of things are not on their own going to kill labour productivity in Australia," Sherrell said.

"But when you add them up we're heading in the wrong direction in terms of how we want to compete on this, especially if you look at the share of jobs which are moving away from manufacturing to a service-based economy."

Hango-Zada said, while costly to enlist through the visa system, Shippit's 457 visa-sponsored technician had "paid back in multiples" through increased productivity and a better team culture.

"What 457 visas enabled us to do is bring that resource in house, help that member become a real contributing member of the team and absolutely help to change our business and take us to the next stage of growth."

For businesses operating in global market, foreign workers also offered real benefits beyond just a politically correct workplace.

"Working with a multicultural and diverse workplace is important now, especially when we're opening up trade lanes with south-east Asian markets and international markets," Hango-Zada said.

Perhaps the biggest change by by far was removal of the path to permanent residency for the new two-year visa stream, which covers the bulk of occupations, from March 2018.

The 457 visa is one of the most common ways to permanent residency, making up about 40 per cent of all permanent skilled migration and 28 per cent of all permanent visas.

Out of 95,000 workers, about 38,000 used the 457 visa as path way to a permanent visa in 2015-16.

University of Sydney law professor Mary Crock said the removal of permanent residency was part of a broader trend across visa categories away from using the temporary migration system as a "try before you buy" system.

"That try-before-you-buy system was basically saying it makes good economic sense and good for interpersonal relations to have workers you know and can be trusted because you've seen how they operate."

But without a permanent path, companies could find essential skills taken away after only a few years or lose a valuable enticement.

The full effects of the government changes are yet to be determined, with more detail to be revealed in the budget.

What is certain, however, is the uncertainty will continue.

The government has already agreed to meet with universities after admitting that heavy restrictions on researchers were an "unintended consequence" of its changes.

Legal principal of BDO Migration Services, Maria Jockel, said the list of visa occupations was likely to become a "moving feast" as the government makes changes every six months.

"This means that this already extremely complex area of law will become even more complex and uncertain," she said.

The mass of red tape and dozens of limitations, including bans on companies with less than $1 million turnover, would also make it "very difficult if not impossible" for some small businesses to recruit particular foreign workers.

"The new concept of occupations and businesses which are subject to 'caveats' means each case must be assessed on its merits," Jockel said.

"A 'cookie cutter approach' is no longer possible."

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Abolition of 457s marks landmark shift in global war for talent - with a high price to Australia - The Australian Financial Review

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says definitions will be broadened to allow universities to hire overseas PhD graduates.

The federal government has offered an olive branch to universities angered by last week's abolition of 457 visas which restricted their ability to hire talented overseas researchers.

Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton has told universities the government will take a broad view of what is defined as work experience so that newly-graduated PhD students who lack conventional work experience will continue to be able to get visas.

The government's new visa rules for overseas workersrequire them to have at least two years' work experience, something that newly-minted PhD graduates generally don't have.

"The government recognises that work experience may take different forms for different occupations, such as research and teaching experience accumulated by PhDs. The government will work with the university sector to define what constitutes work for this cohort," Mr Dutton's office said.

The statement goes some way to mollifying universities who were up in arms last week at the impact the new skilled migration rules will have on their ability to hire overseas talent which is critical in this age of globalised research.

"The comments suggest a genuine willingness to find a way through on the specific visa issues for the higher education sector," Belinda Robinson, CEO of Universities Australia, said.

"There are a number of options on how you might resolve each of those specific elements or questions and those discussions are continuing."

But the government has not resolved universities' other major objection to the new visa rules the fact that overseas academics and researchers whom they want to hire will no longer be able to be get four-year visas and a pathway to permanent residency.

The government has put the skill category of "university lecturer" among the 216 occupations which will have more restricted access to visas.

Researchers will only be able to get four-year visas if their specialist field falls into an area which is separately eligible for the longer visa.

"But there should be no doubt on how serious these issues are and how important it is to have them satisfactorily resolved as an urgent matter of priority," Ms Robinson said.

Universities are also very concerned about the impact of the visa crackdown on the international student market which continues to boom with the number of overseas students commencing courses this year (up to the end of February) 13 per cent higher than in 2016.

But the news that Australia is clamping down on work visas has been interpreted in Asian countries as a widespreadvisa restriction applying to students as well.

Last week New Zealand also announced a tightening on work visas, and Australia is now part of a general narrative that Western countries are rejecting skilled migrants and students.

The government's announcement has no direct impact on student visas and nor does it affect international students' post-study work rights, which allow a bachelor degree graduate to remain and work in Australia for two years after completing their course.

However, the abolition of 457 visas would affect students who want to stay on and seek permanent residency.

"The challenge for the government and brand Australia is to clarify that there is no impact on the student visa framework," said Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association of Australia.

Concerned by the overseas reaction, federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham tweeted on Friday: "Fact. Australia is open to educating the world."

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Dutton backs down to universities on hiring overseas PhDs - The Australian Financial Review