Australia State/Territory Migration just got dumped by the Federal Department of Home Affairs

The Department of Home Affairs recently published the allocations provided to each State and Territory for their individual state nomination programmes. The allocations are a drastic reduction from previous years, as well as contradicting the planning numbers announced during the Federal Budget. You can view the details from the Department website here.

This is an intriguing and confusing decision, seeing that the planned migration numbers for the 2023-24 financial is set at the pre-COVID levels of 190,000, with State/Territory Nominated visas planned for at similar levels as the year before (30,400 places versus 31,000 places in the last financial year). The allocations recently published totals 16,700 places, which is 45% lesser than the originally planned number of 30,400.

This comes as a huge surprise at a time when there are ongoing news and talk about:

• Shortage of skilled workers in Australia (Google this and you will see plenty of news articles)
• The need for migrants to help with the post-COVID recovery for Australia's economy (the Department actually acknowledged this in a consultation paper here)
• Having too many temporary migrants in Australia (temporary residents would have been able to, and WANT TO move on to a permanent visa after a temporary residency period)

No reason or explanation was provided for the drastically reduced allocations. No communication to the migration industry or the state and territory departments. All parties are blindsided by this surprise call by the Department of Home Affairs.

Cue "The Scream" by?Edvard Munch ??

What does this mean

This means that State and Territory Departments will have lesser flexibility with the management of their nomination/sponsorship programme. Think of this from the State/Territory departments' perspective:

• Do we simply exhaust all our allocations as quickly as possible, and then close for the rest of the financial year?
• Do we just set the bar high so that only the crème de la crème is selected for nomination?
• Do we average out our allocations throughout the financial year, meaning we will only process a set amount of applications per month? What about applicants with a pending visa expiry?
• How do we select applicants for nomination fairly?
• As a regional state/territory, what can we do to attract skilled workers to regional Australia if we can't nominate them for visas and encourage skilled workers to settle here?

Imagine a business with a steady order of 100 units of products per year and then suddenly have this order cut by half. Yes you can argue that is life, but still this will take some acumen to manage, and could be totally unnecessary if the Department of Home Affairs had given the State/Territory departments some heads up. The large difference from the original planning numbers announced during the Federal Budget will pose significant disruptions and challenges.

While the Department of Home Affairs could move some of the planning numbers to say a Skilled Independent visa category, this means applicants are at the mercy of:

• when the Department of Home Affairs decides to carry out an invitation round (invitation rounds are not set periodically and occurs without notice)
• which occupations are invited (the last round in May 2023 only invited health professionals)
• the points claimed by the pool of Expression of Interest (EOI) applicants (selections happen top-down and sometimes applicants overclaim points by mistake, utilising one allocation)
• what occupations are eligible for the Skilled Independent visa (State/Territory Nominated visas allow for more occupations)

Not great when your temporary visa will eventually expire.

Why is it important

At the end of the day it is the people who suffer. Migration professionals at the front-lines like myself see aspiring and genuine migrants , who have adhered to and done what they have been told to have an opportunity to make Australia their permanent home, are disappointed, worried and feel uncertain about what will happen to their life plans. And who can blame them? Many of them have worked in Australia after their studies, to meet the criteria of the state/territory nomination, as the natural next step towards permanent residency. With the reduced allocations as they are now, this means that no one can be certain of successfully obtaining the necessary state/territory nomination for further stay. These are working, tax-paying individuals who don't even have access to Medicare, or First Home Buyer grants and incentives. You would think that there wouldn't be other groups of people more deserving of permanent residency than this group of people.

The ongoing writers and actors strike in Hollywood has a theme about treating production staff as not just a number on the financial statement, but as a person who is contributing towards a positive outcome. A person who wants to migrate to Australia, and demonstrates required skills, experience and commitment to Australia should be treated the same. They are not just a number.

Additionally the original thought behind a State/Territory driven nomination programme is so that skills shortages can be identified and filled better at the micro level (State/Territory Government) rather than the macro level (Federal Government). Reducing allocations to the State/Territories without consultation, would result in State/Territory governments being unable to fill demands using their respective nomination programmes.

What next

The Migration Institute of Australia, the peak body for migration professionals in Australia is engaging Department of Home Affairs contacts to seek clarification. I also believe that State and Territory departments (especially regional ones) will be going back to the Department of Home Affairs and urge reconsideration of this allocation. Will we see a change in the allocation numbers? Experience tells me that even if we do, it won't be soon, not until the realisation of the error sets in much, much later. In the meantime I, like many of my industry peers, may now have to calm down clients who were looking forward to the state/territory nomination programmes reopening, and potentially look at plan Bs if they miss out on the programme. I am going to the pharmacy to get some gingko supplements, as this is going to be quite a mental exercise. Let us hope for some common sense to prevail with this matter, and soon.