Outcome 1
Overview
Outcome 1 is: Contributing to Australia's society and its economic advancement through the lawful and orderly entry and stay of people.
There are five outputs under Outcome 1:
- Output 1.1 - Migration and temporary entry
- Output 1.2 - Refugee and humanitarian entry and stay
- Output 1.3 - Enforcement of immigration law
- Output 1.4 - Safe haven
- Output 1.5 - Offshore asylum seeker management.
This chapter contains detailed performance information against each of these outputs, and is concluded by an analysis of administered items on page 180.
Migration programme
On 25 July 2006, the Minister announced the delivery of the largest migration programme for several decades, at close to the planning level of 143 000 places. This included a Skill Stream of over 97 000 places - the largest Skill Stream ever. The balance of the programme was made up of migrants under the Family Stream. The programme met the government's objective of increasing the extent to which the Skill Stream is targeted to the needs of Australian industries and employers. Almost 60 per cent of the Skill Stream was made up of migrants who held visas under targeted categories, including employer-sponsored migrants, state-sponsored migrants, and migrants with skilled occupations listed as being in high demand.
Business
To support the increased number of places in the Migration Programme, we implemented the Industry Outreach Officer and Australia Needs Skills recruitment expo initiatives. To raise awareness and offer support for visa options and immigration mechanisms, we appointed 15 Industry Outreach Officers to 20 peak industry and association bodies. The Australia Needs Skills expos were held in eight overseas locations and in four Australian cities to connect Australian employers and state and territory government representatives with potential skilled migrants.
The temporary business (subclass 457) programme achieved 10 years of operation in July 2006. In 2005-06, some 39 500 subclass 457 visas were granted to primary applicants, an increase of around 42 per cent over last year. This growth highlights the value of the programme to the many employers facing substantial skill shortages. The temporary business programme was subject to significant public scrutiny during much of 2006, particularly concerning alleged exploitation of overseas workers. We concentrated our efforts to ensure all allegations were appropriately investigated, working closely with other federal and state agencies.
The Minister also announced a range of other measures in May 2006 to ensure that overseas workers continue to be paid and treated appropriately. This included increases to minimum salary levels, a minimum salary standard for regional positions, and the implementation of a strengthened English language requirement, following consultation with industry.
The employer-sponsored category has three components: the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS), the Labour Agreement (LA) and the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS). We granted a total of 15 226 visas for these categories, made up of 3454 RSMS visas, 2079 LA visas, and 9693 ENS visas. This is 1.5 per cent higher than the planning level of 15 000 visas and is a 16.9 per cent increase over the 2004-05 outcome, reflecting the strong economy and skill shortages.
Temporary Entry
In July 2005, we expanded our online Tourist visa process (e-676) to all countries eligible for the Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) enabling easy access to longer stay tourist visas. In addition, the Preferred Aussie Specialist Programme, which facilitates visitor travel to Australia, was introduced in Russia in September 2005.
From 1 November 2005, we expanded our Working Holiday Maker (WHM) programme to enable visa holders to be granted a further stay of one year where they have undertaken seasonal work in regional Australia. Almost 3000 young people took up this opportunity during the year.
On 3 May 2006, the Minister announced the further expansion of the WHM programme from 1 July 2006. This enables Working Holiday visa holders to spend six months, (instead of three) working for one employer, and allows them to study for four months instead of the previous three months.
We expanded the Work and Holiday programme to Chile (from 31 March 2006), and signed further agreements with Turkey (on 8 December 2005) and Bangladesh (on 8 March 2006). These are expected to start in 2006-07.
We further streamlined visitor processing for citizens of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait. Visitors from these countries can now obtain visas to travel to Australia without needing a label in their passports.
In November 2005, we introduced the Trade Skills Training visa to help reduce skills shortages in regional Australia. This gives Australian employers an opportunity to fill apprenticeship vacancies in regional areas where they have been unable to find an Australian to fill the position. The apprentice will work in regional Australia and directly contribute to local business and community growth.
On 1 November 2005, the Minister announced changes to the Student Visa Assessment Levels for 15 countries, offering more streamlined visa processing. These changes expanded online student visa application services to nationals of Bahrain, Chile, Kuwait, Peru, and the United Arab Emirates for the first time.