In an unseen turn of events, The Australian Council of Trade Unions, Australian Industry Group and other significant migrant groups have signed a national compact on permanent immigration. This compact is a written statement signed by powerful bodies that speak to the Government in hopes to prevent the threshold of 190,000 permanent immigrants each year being reduced.
“Australia is a country based on multicultural values where migrants enjoy the equality of opportunity to participate and benefit from Australia’s social, economic and political life. As our economic opportunities in the Asia Pacific continue to advance and our population ages, Australia will need migrants to bring skills and youth to complement and develop our domestic workforce and to help to grow the national income needed to support our high standard of living.”
This group formation came together to highlight the contributions that permanent residency and immigration made to the Australian society and to promote the compact in the hopes of keeping the threshold at its current level.
The groups felt this was a necessary action after some recent concerns were being raised by Government officials and Australian Citizens on the rapid growth of immigration numbers and the country’s ability to cope with that growth.
Tony Abbott also had called out for the immigration levels to be dropped to 110,000 which is closer to half the intended quota annually.
The permanent migration program to Australia is currently capped at 190,000 intakes (excluding the humanitarian program which is 16,250 currently) and has been that way since 2015 where it was raised to that point by the Labour Government’s involvement.
This 190,000 intake is divided between multiple visas which is roughly 1/3 family reunion visas and 2/3 skilled visas.
The national compact, signed by multiple significant bodies, outlines that permanent migration has been crucial to Australia’s development and will be critical to the country in the future.
“Our permanent migration program has been central to Australia’s economic and social development and will be critical to Australia’s future as a productive and globally integrated economy and society”
While the Government has confirmed that there are no plans to reduce the 190,000 for migrants they have been vague with what the next step will be in the immigration paths.
“We have made it very clear we’re not proposing to reduce that 190,000 number but it is a ceiling, it’s not a target,”
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has explained to Sky News that the Government has no plans in reducing migration numbers despite the gossip surrounding the 190,000 threshold.
And so we will wait to hear if the contract signed by these significant bodies will make an impact on the future decisions in Government.
Subscribe to stay updated and contact us today to see how we can bring you safely through to the other side of Permanent Residency.
