What Does the Federal Budget 2021 - 2022 Mean for Australian Migration?

What is the Federal Budget?

The release of Federal Budget 2021-2022 marked one of the biggest Australian government expenditures in history to facilitate Australian economic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Migration again has become one of the most popular topics to be discussed among politicians and the public as it is nearly impossible to talk about any sensible economic recovery plan without implementing an appropriate migration policy for any future economic growth. As such, we will focus on what are the significant changes in the funding in Australian migration and what has remained unchanged, and on the implications for those who intend to migrate to Australia in the near future.

Migration Program Planning Level

For the number of permanent migration intake, the Government will maintain the 2021-2022 Migration Program planning level at 160,000. Breaking the number into different migration streams, the number of places available will be set at 77,300 for Family visa which accounts for nearly 49% of the entire migration program. Skilled visas share another half of the migration program with prioritized processing of employer sponsored, Business Innovation and Investor Program, and Global Talent visa cohorts. It is reasonable to predict that the migration pathway via General Skilled Migration (GSM) Scheme will be secondary for the government to consider and for those who intend to choose GSM as their preferred migration pathway, the competition will be fierce, and delay for processing should be expected. As for Humanitarian Program, the places will be maintained at 13,750.

 

Supporting Migrant and Refugee Women

Other than upholding the Migration Program planning level, the Australian Government has also announced to provide extra funding to improve migrant and refugee women’s safety and increase capacity for early intervention, grass-root and social and economic inclusion support.  This will also be realized by a pilot program to support temporary visa holders experiencing family violence to explore visa options that are not reliant on their partner as part of the overarching goal of the government to protect venerable migrant women and children from the threat of family violence. Specifically, a total amount of $10.3 million from 30 June 2022 to 2023 will be administered by the Australian Red Cross which will provide up to $3,000 to eligible temporary visa holders to help them cover expenses such as food, accommodation, utilities and other essentials and medical care. In addition, extended funding will also be provided to nine Community and Women’s Legal Centres across Australia to continue to help women in this challenging situation to access legal assistance and migration support.

 

Adult Migrant English Program – New Delivery Model

Aiming to improve English language, employment and social cohesion outcomes for newly arrived migrants, the Government will introduce a new delivery model for Adult Migrant Program from 1 July 2023 as previously announced. Different from the previous measure, the cap of 510 hours will be removed and migrant will be able to benefit from the program by studying English until they have reached the level of ‘vocational’ English that is equivalent of IELTS band 5 or above for each of the 4 test components (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) or PTE 36 or above for each of the 4 components.

Immigration Detention – Christmas Island

It is the Australian Government policy to continue supporting the operation of onshore Immigration Detention (IDC) Network. In the current federal budget, the Australian Government will provide further $464.7 million over two years from 2020-21 to increase the capacity of IDCs and to extend use of the North West Point Immigration Detention Centre on Christmas Island. The Government claimed the measure is imposed to address the ongoing capacity pressures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on Australia’s ability to remove unlawful non-citizens from this country. A tighter control, if not less, of the migration flow within the country is expected to continue under the current Coalition Government.

Visa-Specific Measures

The Australian government has also implemented several measures targeting specific visa types. Those visa types are:

  • Sponsored Temporary Parent visa where it will be extended by 18 months for individuals who are unable to use their visas due to COVID-19 travel restrictions;

  • Global Talent visas where a total amount of $550 million will be committed to attract talent and business from overseas with the option of streamlining of visa for highly skilled individuals when circumstances allow which is conducted mostly likely by Global Talent Taskforce;

  • Temporary visa applicants (subclass 408) where they do not have to demonstrate their attempts to depart Australia if they intend to undertake agricultural work;

  • Student visa holders (subclass 500) where a 40-hour per fortnight work restriction to be lifted if they are employed in the tourism or hospitality sectors;

  • Pacific Labour Scheme where their visas will be extended for 12 months until April 2022.

 

Implications From Latest Migration Policy

The first implication from the latest migration policy is that given the planning level remained unchanged even with the fact that the Net Overseas Migration (NOM) has fallen from 154,000 persons in 2019-2020 to be around 72,000 persons by the end of 2020-2021, it may sound encouraging for those who wish to migrate to Australia permanently as the Australian government remains positive in welcoming migrants to permanently settled in Australia if they are eligible. However, future skilled visa applicants need to be aware that a direct permanent pathway will be more limited, and the temporary work visa granted to those visa applicants before applying for a permanent visa will be more common than that in previous years.

Secondly, the Family stream visas will be an easy and fast permanent migration pathway for those who have an Australian partner. However, a more stringent assessment of the sponsorship before the visa application will be expected to tackle the issue of family violence and protect vulnerable migrant women and children. A more practical impact of this for most of the visa applicants will be that they might need to wait until their partner’s sponsorship is approved before they can lodge a visa application.  

Thirdly, English language capacity will be more important for visa applicants as the legal requirement to be fulfilled before they can settle in Australia permanently.

How Can Agape Henry Crux Help You

If you want to find out more about your eligibility or need advice on your Australian migration matter, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can book a Migration Planning Session with one of our immigration lawyers to seek professional advice by calling 02-7200 2700 or email us to book in a time at info@ahclawyers.com.

We speak fluent English, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Burmese and Malay. If these aren’t your language, we can also help you arrange an interpreter.


This article/presentation (“publication”) does not deal extensively with important topics or changes in law and is not intended to be relied upon as a substitute for legal or other advice that may be relevant to the reader's specific circumstances. If you find this publication of interest and would like to know more or wish to obtain legal advice relevant to your circumstances please contact our office.

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