Story by national affairs correspondent Jane Norman 

Employers wanting to bring nurses, teachers and other skilled workers to Australia are facing  waits of up to 12 months, under a far-reaching directive issued by the Home Affairs Minister  Tony Burke to reduce overseas arrivals. 

The directive, issued in July, determines the order in which the department processes skilled  and employer-sponsored visas, prioritising applications made by migrant workers already in  Australia over offshore applicants. 

Workers in defence and law enforcement are now at front of the queue for visa processing, or in  the first of the five tiers, followed by workers in construction, healthcare and teaching who  apply from Australia. 

But any migrant applying for a skilled visa from overseas — who is not in defence or law  enforcement — has been bumped to the back of the queue, in effect pausing applications, as  the government seeks to put its foot on the brake to stop people coming to the country. 

Before the new rules were introduced, Home Affairs was working through a 12-month backlog  of applications for onshore permanent and temporary skilled visas, according to sources in the  sector who note processing times differ depending on the exact visa type. 

Jamie Lingham, CEO of Absolute Immigration Group, criticised the directive as a “blunt  tool”.”The impact is huge and I don’t think everyone has grasped the reality of what’s  happening,” Mr Lingham said.”Why aren’t there priority areas for offshore applications too? It  means your marketing manager could get in before your nurse.” 

Business groups have slammed the delays “being built into the system” which have seen  decisions on visas blow out, in some cases, from “a few weeks to close to a year”, according to  Australian Industry Group CEO Innes Willox. 

“The longer the pause goes on the more we risk robbing Peter to pay Paul — appearing to soothe  public concern about migration at the cost of our long-term development and maintaining living  standards,” Mr Willox said. 

“We have unfortunately gone from a processing fast lane implemented by the government after  COVID to the emergency stopping lane.”

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew McKellar has also expressed  alarm at the change, which comes on top of a separate directive which effectively paused the  processing of Working Holiday Maker, or backpacker, visas in July. 

“You now have the government putting in place a sequence of measures to slow the processing  of skilled visas, responding to a short-term political imperative rather than focusing on the  proper administration of system and the urgent skills needs of business,” Mr McKellar said. 

Working rights under cloud

Under pressure to reduce migration, Immigration Minister Tony Burke is working on a more  comprehensive overhaul of the system which was due to be announced at the National Press  Club a fortnight ago, before the minister was forced to postpone. 

Central to the new policy will be a clampdown on temporary visas to reduce Net Overseas  Migration (NOM) from the current 300,000 to Labor’s target of 225,000 by 2028. 

The figure, which represents the number of people coming to live in Australia minus those  departing to live overseas, reached a peak of 556,000 when international borders reopened  after COVID and has not fallen as fast as forecast. 

As revealed by the ABC, the government is considering removing the work rights of visa-holders  whose claims for protection have been rejected to crack down on the migrants who stay in  Australia for years longer than expected on bridging visas. 

When asked if the proposal was on the table, Mr Burke said: “I’m not going to start ruling in and  out when we’re in the middle of a process.” 

Backpackers, students targeted

Business leaders, including Mr Willox, have pleaded with the minister to announce the details  of the new migration policy, and said, “the quicker the minister can outline future policy and  intake settings the better”. 

“Given that there is a global war for talent, we hope the current settings are in place for a very  short time,” Mr Willox told ABC, referring to the new directives. 

Mr Burke would not give any hints when asked today, but defended the process so far.

“I think the silliest thing is to get into the exact situation where you haven’t completed the  consultation and you give the speech anyway and that’s exactly what Andrew Bragg did,” Mr  Burke said. 

Senator Bragg was counselled by Opposition Leader Angus Taylor for using a speech to suggest  the Coalition should bring NOM down to 180,000 a year by cutting both student and backpacker  visa numbers. 

The comments exposed a rift with the Nationals who want to cut overall migration numbers but  are refusing to touch the backpacker visas many farmers and regional communities rely on. 

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has also vowed to ring fence backpacker visas from any  cuts, instead calling for international student numbers to slashed. 

More than 528,000 migrants are currently in Australia on student visas, up from 383,910 in  2017, while the number of backpacker visas has risen from 146,340 to 225,650 in the same  period. 

The number of people on a bridging visa has more than tripled since 2017 from 130,450 to  413,000.