MEMBER for Mallee Anne Webster has claimed migrant health-care and education workers in regional areas who apply for a skilled regional visa (subclass 887) are “being put on the bottom of the pile”.
Dr Webster has criticised the Federal Labor Government for a “visa oversight” in which skilled migrants already living in places like Mildura and Robinvale are “waiting more than two years” for a visa.
She said if they applied for different skill shortage visas, which include working in cities, that applications were “fast-tracked with applications in as little as 25 days”.
The Immigration Department has admitted that the subclass 877 visa was given a lower priority during processing, as applications are not made in relation to a specific occupation.
Those applying are however still able to work in regional Australia while they wait for approval.
“The subclass 887 visa is the second stage of a two-stage visa – it is only available to people who already hold an eligible provisional visa who are already working and living in regional Australia,” a departmental spokesperson said.
Dr Webster’s comments come following a new direction from Immigration Minister Andrew Giles that came into effect on October 28 last year in an effort to clear visa backlogs.
Ministerial direction 100 prioritises permanent and provisional visa applications where the applicant is offshore, enabling more workers to come to Australia more quickly and fill skill shortages, including in regional Australia.
Dr Webster, who is the deputy chair of Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Migration, and an Opposition assistant spokesperson for regional health, said the “error” with subclass 887 visas was unforgivable.
“Thousands of critical workers are being unfairly denied prioritisation of their visas as a result of this,” Dr Webster said.
“Regional areas are crying out for these workers, but the Immigration Minister has carelessly imposed a penalty on the regions.”
The Federal Labor Government said that reducing the number of on-hand visa applications was a priority.
“On-hand temporary and migration applications are now almost 40 per cent lower than in June 2022,” a departmental spokesperson said.
“The department finalised over four million temporary and migrant applications, which is a 409 per cent increase from the same period in the previous year.
“While subclass 887 visa applicants already hold visas with work rights – either a provisional visa or a bridging visa that allows work – the government is actively seeking to address this situation, to continue progress made on reducing visa backlogs.”
