Australian Trades

Visa and Employment Related News

Panel of experts to advise on changes to 457 visa program

Tuesday 8 July 2008

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, today announced the establishment of a Skilled Migration Consultative Panel to provide advice to the Government on proposals aimed at improving Australia's temporary skilled (457 visa) migration program.

Membership of the consultative panel will comprise representatives of the New South Wales, Victorian, Queensland and Western Australian state governments; Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Australian Industry Group; Business Council of Australia; Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Minerals Council of Australia.

Under the terms of reference, the consultative panel will consult with their members and constituents in order to:

consider and provide advice to Government on matters referred regarding possible skilled migration policy changes
consider and provide advice on issues referred by industrial relations expert Barbara Deegan, who is conducting a review of the integrity of the 457 visa program; and
provide informed feedback on reform proposals based on a sound appreciation of the issues and the impacts these issues have on business, the Australian workforce and the broader community.

The consultative panel will also examine how the temporary 457 visa program can best integrate with the employer and state-sponsored permanent skilled migration program.

The consultative panel will provide advice through the latter half of 2008 to assist the Government in its development of a package of longer term measures to be considered in the context of the 2009–10 budget process.

The announcement of the consultative panel coincides with the release today of Ms Deegan's first issues paper for the 457 Integrity Review.

The paper canvasses issues related to minimum salary levels for 457 visa workers and the role of labour agreements in the temporary skilled migration scheme and will provide the basis for feedback from industry, union and government stakeholders.

The paper is the first in a series of issues papers to be released as part of the 457 Visa Integrity review and is not Government policy.

The issues paper can be found on the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's website.
See: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/whats_new_457.htm
Or requested via email:
Email: 457IntegrityReview@immi.gov.au