The race to find 5,000 Global Talents
A new migration review, ANZSCO frustrations and the fallout from the Minister's big speech.
Hello and happy Friday.
Please enjoy this week’s migration and population news below. And look out for a story from me on the urgent need for a review of ANZSCO, coming out tomorrow.
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Coleman sets out agenda
Immigration Minister David Coleman gave a speech to the Sydney Institute on Tuesday night.
He outlined the new permanent Global Talent independent scheme:
Home Affairs staff will be placed on the ground in key overseas locations, with the task of recruiting very high value migrants. Last month, an officer commenced work in Berlin, and next month we will be placing staff in Washington, Singapore, Shanghai, Santiago and Dubai. This direct overseas recruitment effort is the first of its kind in our immigration programme. Our overseas teams will work with the world’s top universities, professional associations and other institutions to market the Global Talent program to exceptional candidates.
He flagged a review of investment visas:
These visas are premised on the idea that investment in the Australian economy is a positive thing, and that people who want to provide job-creating capital should be encouraged to do so. It makes sense. But as with all ideas, we need to sharply focus on the practical execution to ensure that we are fully delivering on the goal. To that end, I will be reviewing our business investment visas with a simple question in mind: can we get a better deal for Australia? Immigration to Australia is highly attractive to this cohort, and we need to ensure that we maximise the returns to our economy from their investment.
And he declared “I expect that we will conclude more DAMAs with specific regions in the coming months”.
The biggest question arising from the speech was whether the Government can convince 5,000 talented people to move to Australia in the new Global Talent scheme based on the attraction of Australia alone. If it doesn’t, the permanent migration program will experience another decline.
The Minister’s office gave the drop of the speech to Phil Coorey, who managed to get it on the front of the Financial Review:
People of Australia
Zerub Roberts (left) and Neelima Pallanti are aspiring data scientists. Zerub spoke to me about his frustrations with the outdated ANZSCO list in a story that should be published on Saturday morning.
"If I don't manage to secure permanent residency in two years, that would be very unfortunate. I just hope we won't end up regretting this major decision we took two years ago to come to Australia."
What else happened
Policy
A new parliamentary review into migration was announced.
News of the review was dropped to Eryk Bagshaw and Shane Wright at the SMH/Age. The Guardian did a follow claiming “the Coalition says it will not consider a further cut to migration numbers”. But this line appears to be based only on comments from Liberal backbencher and committee chair Julian Leeser:
“It is not about the total number. I think we have had a long debate about how many people we should have in this country, what we haven’t had enough discussion on is where they should go.”
SBS Punjabi clarified that Indians cannot access the work and holiday visa. So far the Government has only said it is in talks to include India in the scheme.
SBS reported of work by Sangeetha Pillai at the Kaldor Centre that Australia’s approach to deporting foreign criminals is tougher than the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand.
After the Global Talent Scheme visa pilot was extended, SmartCompany asked, with five startups signed up, was it really a success?
…while the scheme is suitable for innovative tech companies, it’s also being utilised by other corporates, and is perhaps more effective for them than it is for earlier-stage startups.
Julian Bajkowski at IT News provided a tech-centric view of recent immigration announcements:
What Australian companies and industry sectors will now be able to do, at least according to Coleman’s vision, is push tech for selected pockets of talent to be actively enticed to Australia permanently rather the rely on the ‘see who applies model’. With a chronic tech skills shortage in some pockets like AI, data analytics and machine learning and mass redundancies flowing across superseded tech skillsets, industry as well as Coleman will be hoping the migration wonks get it right this time.
People
SBS covered a Melbourne networking event for migrants:
ABC Capricornia studied racial discrimination in regional areas.
Peter Dutton said Kristina Keneally “doesn’t stop talking” while talking on 2GB.
The ABC reported of a health data breach of immigration applicants in 2015.
Population
Lots of talk this week about Infrastructure Australia’s latest audit. Here’s a wrap of some of the coverage:
The audit included a great chart showing how badly we have underestimated population growth (it took me about a minute to get my head around it):
Labor leader Anthony Albanese called for a “mature” debate on population growth:
“My concern is that there is, without any real debate, a much higher increase in population than the permanent migration figures show because of the temporary migration that is there, which is a direct product of the failure to plan properly.”
But he flagged Labor wouldn’t have major policy proposals in this area:
“From opposition, frankly, we don’t have the tools to do the modelling that is required. What I know is that the government just seems to be drifting along on these issues without having a conscious strategy about what the implications are for these issues, including, one of those is urban congestion.”
The world
The SMH quoted John Howard from an appearance on the BBC in the UK:
"My experience as almost 12 years as prime minister was that whenever the Australian population thought that immigration was being controlled and properly monitored they supported high immigration [numbers]. If people think it's methodical they will support it. That came through very strongly. If they feel that control is slipping they will turn against it. I think that would apply to just about any country in the world. It’s basic common sense."
The ABC reported that Australia's High Commissioner to Malaysia has publicly responded to criticism of the country's immigration practices after a group of Malaysian women were blocked from flying by an Australian official at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The New Zealand Herald reported a drop in the number of overseas visitors from Asia in June, with the number of arrivals from China down by more than 3 per cent.
Traveller featured ten countries that now make it easier for Australian travellers, with e-visas, free visas or ePassports.
And finally, a successful Australian businesswoman in Denver will be coming home after the US Government decided they would not renew her visa, the Denver Post reported:
Look out for my ANZSCO story tomorrow and, most importantly, have a good weekend!
Jackson