Businesses facing ongoing skilled labour shortages have been given a pre-Christmas reprieve with eligible occupations on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) more than doubling.
In a sign the Federal Government has listened to industry concerns, the final CSOL details 456 occupations eligible to apply to enter Australia via the Core Skills pathway of the new Skills in Demand visa – up from 183.
The draft CSOL, released in May 2024, fell short and failed to recognise the importance of skilled migration for Western Australia, particularly regional WA.
In CCIWA’s response to the draft, we called for faster approvals processes and consideration of more occupations to be included.
Meanwhile, the Government has also released details for the National Innovation Visa, Skills in Demand Visa and Employer Nomination Scheme.
The Skills in Demand visa, which came into effect on December 7, 2024, is a core initiative in the Government’s Migration Strategy and will replace the Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) visa.
Under the changes:
- Visa holders can remain in Australia for up to four years.
- SID has three sub-components: CSOL; Specialist Skills; and Labour Agreement (to be replaced by an Essential Skills stream).
- SID (CSOL) recipients must be paid a minimum of AUD$73,150 — the new Core Skills Income Threshold.
- SID (Specialist) recipients must be paid a minimum of AUD$135,000 — the new Specialist Skills Income Threshold, and no less than Australian workers in the same occupation.
- SID (Essential) are on specific labour agreements.
CCIWA Chief Economist Aaron Morey said it was good that the Government listened to the concerns of industry.
“Since the Government released the new migration plan last year, we advised that they needed to add a lot of blue-collar skills to that fast-track system,” he said.
“The WA economy is creaming out for skills, and while this is not a panacea, we need to pull every policy lever to get the workers we need, and this is a good development for industry.”
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew McKellar said the CSOL and Core Skills Pathway will be critical tools for helping address immediate worker shortages across industries.
“The stakes of the Core Skills Occupation List are incredibly high for businesses and industries across Australia experiencing worker shortages, particularly in fields where it takes time to train an Australian worker from scratch,” he said.
“We need to be building the pipeline of Australian apprentices, and we also need access to international talent to help us meet immediate needs.”
He added: “We now look to the government to consider future shortages, rather than only current shortages, in our domestic skills lists, such as the Occupation Shortage List, so that we can also effectively build that pipeline of domestic talent.”
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