Submission to the Inquiry into the Value of Skilled Migration to Australia

Skilled migration is critical to Australia’s prosperity and will remain vital over the coming decades in helping fulfil national ambitions despite domestic skills shortages. In the short to mid-term, skilled migration can deeply benefit Australia through supplementing our domestic skill base.

A strategic, long-term perspective on the value of skilled migration recognises its role in protecting Australia's sovereign capabilities, achieving national strategic priorities, and enabling continued technological innovation for decades to come. Australian governments have a time-sensitive opportunity to recognise and leverage the nation-building capacity of skilled migration through robust and strategic reform.

ATSE makes the following recommendations:

Recommendation 1: Develop a 40-year skilled migration strategic roadmap that interfaces with the National Skills Taxonomy.

Recommendation 2: Establish a five-year statutory body to provide an avenue for reform to reduce complexity and excessively long wait times for current skilled migration processes.

Recommendation 3: Coordinate an inter-governmental task force to improve utilisation of underemployed migrant engineers.