Skilled professionals commanding large salaries should be given quick entry to Australia’s jobs market, says Atlassian’s co-founder Scott Farquhar, who argues the nation’s complex migrant visa requirements make it difficult to recruit top overseas talent.
A group of new Labor MPs in metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne also say reducing bureaucratic hurdles for employers hiring internationally should be firmly on the table at the jobs summit.
Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar said the complexity of different visa categories made it hard for Atlassian to bring in talented people to fill skills gaps.Credit:Oscar Colman
As the country grapples with a massive skills and labour shortage, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared in his National Press Club address on Monday Australia is a “migration country” and said temporary visa holders should not have been forced out the door during the pandemic, resulting in an exodus of working migrants.
Farquhar, while announcing a major commitment to hire 1032 research and development staff to the tech giant in Australia and New Zealand over the next year, said the complexity of different visa categories made it hard for Atlassian to bring in talented people where there weren’t enough locals to fill roles.
He said the company had pushed for a salary threshold, in the ballpark of $120,000 to $200,000, above which it would be much easier for skilled migrants to enter Australia.
“Once you reach a certain wage, the government should give you a lot more latitude to bring people in,” said Farquhar, who co-founded the $US65 billion software company 20 years ago. “The aperture should just open up once you earn a certain wage.”
Three newly elected Labor MPs representing multicultural electorates said temporarily lifting labour market testing – a requirement to prioritise local recruitment over international hires – should be canvassed at the summit, where migration will be discussed.
Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale said one barrier raised by the members of his electorate’s Asian community was the test in English proficiency.Credit:Steven Siewert
Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale said his electorate contained businesses ranging from hospitality to the world’s biggest multinationals, and they were “all saying the same thing” in regards to their inability to find workers.
“I am a firm believer that we need to really boost our skilled migration program and, importantly, offer simple and quick pathways to permanent residency for skilled workers to encourage the best and brightest to move to Australia,” Laxale said.
He said local employment should always be a priority, “but the fundamental fact at the moment is that there are not enough locals to fill jobs. So where we boost skilled migration, we also need to boost skills and training”.
“And if you look at Australia’s economic success, it’s been built on short, sharp, targeted, skilled migration and, right now, that’s what we need to grow our economy,” he said.
Laxale, whose parents and grandparents migrated from Mauritius without speaking English, said one barrier raised by the members of the electorate’s Asian community was a test in English proficiency, particularly for partner visas.
“Language is a skill you can learn pretty quickly whereas some of the skills we’re in shortage of take five, six years to learn. So let’s prioritise the skills and, as my parents have shown, the language will follow,” he said.
Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah, representing the inner Melbourne seat of Higgins, said Australia was in a global competition with the rest of the world for skills. “We’re actually in a war for talent … we need to be digging deep, and flying the flag for people to come to Australia, and make it a compelling reason to come here.”
“We’re actually in a war for talent”, says Higgins MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah.Credit:James Brickwood
Asked about a pause on labour market testing, Ananda-Rajah said all ideas should be on the table. “I am all in favour of pulling any and all levers now that will help stop this decline,” she said. But she questioned whether Australia had the ability to absorb more people given infrastructure constraints, and the need to support people already in the country.
New Reid MP Sally Sitou, representing part of Sydney’s inner west, said temporarily lifting labour market testing should be considered given the acuteness of the jobs crisis, despite the fact she didn’t personally agree with the measure as the focus should be developing skills locally.
Sitou, who held a community forum in the lead-up to the main summit, said she received feedback about working closely with the university and tech sectors to boost skills, getting mature-aged workers to retrain to work in the care sectors, and retaining staff in care industries.
Albanese told the Press Club on Monday “it probably wasn’t the wisest decision during the pandemic to tell everyone who was a temporary visa holder to leave, and to provide them with no income and no support, which means many of them have left with ill feeling towards Australia and that spreads around”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the National Press Club on Monday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“We’ve got a globalised labour market, and we need to enhance our reputation, Australia is a great place to live, or to visit, and we need to always bear that in mind, and I think some of the actions that occurred then weren’t wise,” he said.
Former prime minister Scott Morrison said after a national cabinet meeting in April 2020 that people in Australia on temporary visas who couldn’t support themselves had the available alternative to return to their home countries.
As opposition leader, Albanese backed that call, but suggested workers on temporary visas should be eligible for JobKeeper.
In January this year, Atlassian announced it would hire 5000 Australian staff, without providing a definite time frame. Its new target of 1032 jobs is a show of force amid the technology downturn and fits within the broader goal.
Farquhar said Atlassian was announcing the hiring target to show that the issue with jobs and skills was in large measure a supply problem.
“These high-paying jobs are here if we can produce and train and, if we have to, migrate people to Australia to take these jobs.”
Atlassian also wants education reform to ensure there are more skilled technology professionals ready for the jobs it is creating.
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