Time for an immigration reset?

The dual threats of COVID-19 and China’s antics on trade provide a wonderful catalyst to inspire a rethink of Australia’s immigration and trade policies. We have become a little lazy in relying so heavily on immigration to boost our economy, whilst also relying on exporting too much to one country that has demonstrated a voracious appetite – to date. We’ve also been far too generous in allowing foreign acquisitions of prime residential real estate, companies and agricultural land – long term assets sacrificed for short term gain. 

Let’s use COVID to rethink what we’re doing. Instead of walking on eggshells with China, how about significantly diversifying trading partners – right now? Our Trade Minister is rightly beginning to court India and several other countries with whom we can systematically increase trade instead of appealing to Xi Jinping via media to please play nice because no one in Chinese government will take his calls. 

Instead of relying on immigration for economic growth, there’s never been a better time to seriously consider how to begin relying on ourselves and our unique human and physical assets. Let’s bring our expats home as soon as possible (now underway in significant numbers and underpinning our middle to high end metropolitan residential markets) whilst also working to attract the best and brightest minds from COVID-ravaged countries and the under siege Hong Kong. 

This requires a rethink on an archaic inefficient tax system. Ever heard of the ‘brain drain’? It refers to Australia’s intellectual elite feeling the need to go offshore to maximise their earnings because our top tax rate is so high. Why pay 45 cents in the dollar here if you can pay 15 cents in Hong Kong or 22 cents in Singapore? 

However, COVID-19 has put this in reverse, with expats now prioritising health and safety over financial rewards and seeking to return home. Some of them are retaining their high-paying jobs but working remotely from Australia, which means they’re spending their money here, not overseas.  It’s also had a significant influence not only in underpinning but fuelling the mid to high end residential property market.

We should also incentivise companies and their workers to leave the deteriorating global financial hub of Hong Kong. We offer the western-style democracy they are increasingly denied and guaranteed personal freedoms. They can conduct business in Asia in the same time zone; their children can enjoy an excellent education; and the virus here is suppressed with a world class health system at the ready to handle outbreaks. 

The extended visas we’re offering now are good but not enough. We need a proactive campaign promoting Australia to thousands of brilliant Hongkongers who are actively considering leaving now.   

This should be our new immigration policy – predominantly the world’s best and brightest. We offer an incredibly attractive lifestyle and more importantly, we’ve suppressed the virus. Australia is now and will continue to stand out as an aspirational long term destination for millions of talented people across the globe. Why not leverage this to capitalise on the rare opportunity to bring masses of amazing brain power back to Australia? Further, let's report on our progress. The government should implement a six monthly scorecard readily accessible to all Australians to simply and quickly show how we’re going against what we said we’d do. On Revenue, Expenditure, Immigration and other key promises. Just like the accountability required by public companies – and enforced by government instrumentalities – let’s start reporting Scomo – perhaps it can be called the AussieScorecard app. Want an engaged and educated voter base ?

Our former PM, Malcolm Turnbull was right in saying we need innovation to drive our economy forward but you only get innovation from big thinkers. 

The basis for immigration has always been to bring in skilled labour to fill job shortages but somewhere along the way, we became lax in our approach. According to the Department of Home Affairs website, the skilled migrant stream is ‘designed to attract migrants who make a significant contribution to the Australian economy and fill positions where no Australian workers are available’. 

Apparently, there’s 674 of these ‘eligible skilled occupations’, including dancers, singers, bakers, acupuncturists, auctioneers, property managers, bricklayers, carpenters, chefs, personal assistants, conveyancers, database administrators, gardeners, florists, funeral workers, interior designers, lifeguards, farmers, panel beaters, hairdressers, kennel hands, tilers and managers of cafés, retail shops, call centres, caravan parks, gyms, amusement centres, cinemas and motels. I kid you not – 674.

With 960,900 Australian residents out of work – up by almost a quarter-million year on year due to COVID-19, is it even correct to say we have a skills shortage in this country any more? Are there no unemployed or underemployed Aussies with the experience or ability to run a shop or work as a gardener? I wonder if stood-aside Qantas and Virgin employees know that pilots and flight attendants are also on the list.  

Many of these jobs are in regional areas but the latest available data from the Bureau of Statistics shows 84% of new overseas migrants (net) settled in capital cities in FY19. Seems we’re doing very poorly in filling skilled jobs where they are actually needed.

Many Sydneysiders, for example, will tell you they don’t want more migrants and it’s not because they’re racist, it’s because they can’t get to work in less than an hour due to horrendous traffic! Why don’t we ask our new citizens to start out in Australia’s beautiful regions where jobs are apparently plentiful?  

In FY21, with COVID-19 and international border restrictions making it difficult to attract and quarantine new skilled migrants, the government is prioritising onshore migrants wishing to extend their visas whilst also allowing more of their partners to join them here. A one-off increase in family stream visas from 47,732 to 77,300 out of 160,000 migrant places in total will cost $320 million in lost tax receipts (due to fewer new skilled migrants moving here) and $123 million to provide income support and English language services to the partners once they’re here. 

This is outlined in the Federal Budget and presumably, the goal is to encourage skilled migrants to stay during COVID-19 when everyone wants to be near their families. But if our social welfare system has to support the partners of migrants on average salaries (remember the eligible skilled jobs list – gardeners, chefs, hairdressers), does that sound like smart policy?

If we’re talking about a migrant surgeon earning $400,000 pa and paying $150,000 in tax and spending the rest in our economy, whilst also filling a void in medical services to Australians, then maybe it’s a reasonable trade-off in costs. Though surely migrants earning hundreds of thousands can support their partners themselves? Wouldn’t that be a win-win for all of us? 

Interestingly, the words ‘Renewable’ and ‘Energy’ don’t come up in a search of those 674 jobs. We should be a leader in this field. It’s a contemporary growth industry ripe for expansion in the middle of a deep recession. Once again, we’re the ‘lucky country’. We have the best climate and vast space to generate wind and solar energy, plus we’re COVID-safe. China's behaviour on coal amplifies our opportunity. Why not invite every renewables expert alive (and their families) to move here tomorrow and kick-start a major industry for us, creating thousands of new blue and white collar jobs for Australia? The same applies for Agtech, Fintech and many other ‘techs’. We can and should lead the world.

This sort of thinking appears lacking to me in our immigration policies. We need to be smarter and insist on a higher skillset amongst our migrants, compatible with our future industries and economic goals, whilst helping unemployed Australians fill more of those 674 job categories that we’re apparently short in. Scores of them would require minimal training, so let’s offer them to locals first.  

I recall Malcolm Turnbull describing us as the most successful multicultural society in the world. It’s not surprising really given it’s intrinsic to Australian culture to welcome people with open arms. We’re migrants ourselves, after all. This country began as a colony of another. 

But I question how successful any multicultural nation can be when the balance of cultures is so uneven. Of our 239,600 new overseas migrants in FY19, almost six in 10 (57.7%) came from four dominating source countries and all of them were in Asia. Just over 28% of our FY19 migrants were from India (68,840 people), 12.2% from China (29,290), 9.6% from Nepal (23,100) and 7.1% from the Philippines (16,990). Coming in fifth was the UK at 3.3% (7,960 people).

My question here has nothing to do with Asia or Asians, indeed they have contributed so much to our recent history and strength. The 57.7% could be coming from Mars and my point would remain the same. Australia isn’t as multicultural as some would have you believe. We appear to have two or three big cultures and truly harmonious integration between them just isn’t realistic. No wonder we need a federal government program for social cohesion (budgeted to cost $62.8 million over five years…).

In my view, multiculturalism works best when the host country maintains its own unique culture through population dominance, with a roughly even mix of many other cultures in the ‘melting pot’. 

Imagine one proud, inclusive society where the host nation’s culture is admired and enjoyed by its welcomed migrants, who in turn pass on all the value-adds that different cultures bring to enrich our lives, like amazing food, different thinking and historical wisdoms. 

We also don’t ask for enough commitment to assimilation. Only now, after having one of the highest ongoing migrant intakes of any OECD nation, are we even considering a language test as part of the deal.

In the era of rising globalisation, it’s going to be challenging to maintain a peaceful, like-minded community spirit based on shared core values when two or three large cultures have such sway over the hearts and minds of Australia’s residents.   

Australia is at the precipice of being one of the most attractive countries for the foreseeable future. Our performance through COVID has been exemplary on the world stage, led by leaders who have been decisive, sometime controversial however present and strong in their views and execution. The result - world leadership in addressing this terrible crisis. We must not only be proud, but appreciate what we have - it's unique, and enormously attractive - for the long term. We have an incredible window of opportunity - let’s adopt a more judicious approach to immigration, starting with bringing our expats home first, and as Einstein said, “in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”.