Australia: Government Summit Discusses Post-COVID Recovery Efforts

The Australian government hosted a Jobs and Skills Summit to discuss strategies around post-COVID-19 economic recovery efforts, with migration forming a key area of focus. Firstly, the 2022-23 Migration Program that was originally announced as consisting of 160,000 places will be increased to 195,000 places. Additionally, the Minister for Immigration announced an AUD 36.1 million funding boost to clear Australia’s visa backlog, with the hiring of 500 additional staff over the next nine months to work through the 962,000 visa applications that were pending when the Labor government took office in May 2022. Fragomen welcomes these measures to address the current workforce shortages and delays in processing.