Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcottin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Straight Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os It's Wednesday,
Speaker 2: the thirteenth of December. I'm Sam.
Speaker 3: That day, I'm Zara.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: The federal government has unveiled its new migration plan in
Speaker 3: an effort to quote fix Australia's broken migration system.
Speaker 4: When we arrived in government, we found a migration system
Speaker 4: in tatters. We are going to make sure that we
Speaker 4: bring numbers back under control and perhaps most importantly of all,
Speaker 4: that we build a program that delivers for the national interest.
Speaker 3: Now, under the new plan, the government will make it
Speaker 3: harder for some international students to live and study here
Speaker 3: in Australia. So we're going to outline what's going to
Speaker 3: happen and how it will happen in today's deep Dive.
Speaker 3: The first Sam, It's making headlines.
Speaker 2: An independent report into Australia's education system is calling for
Speaker 2: better funding in public schools to close the gap between
Speaker 2: advantaged and disadvantaged students. An expert panel made several recommendations
Speaker 2: to improve student well being and performance and increase support
Speaker 2: for educators. Recommendations included introducing standardized literacy and numeracy testing
Speaker 2: for year one students and measures to help senior students
Speaker 2: transition to life after school. The report's findings are expected
Speaker 2: to inform how schools are funded under a new agreement
Speaker 2: to be decided next year and implemented from twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: New sexual harassment laws for Australian workplaces have come into effect.
Speaker 3: Under the legislation, employers will be responsible for implementing a
Speaker 3: proactive approach to prevent harassment from occurring in the workplace,
Speaker 3: rather than a reactive response after the incident occurs. Workplaces
Speaker 3: could be investigated by the Australian Human Rights Commission if
Speaker 3: they fail to implement measures to prevent sexual harassment.
Speaker 2: The CEO of Netball Australia, Kelly Ryan, has resigned, effective immediately.
Speaker 2: It comes as the sport's peak body negotiates a new
Speaker 2: collective player Agreement pay deal. Ryan said the timing felt
Speaker 2: right to hand over the reins. Since Ryan became CEO
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, the Diamonds won gold at the
Speaker 2: Commonwealth Games and the Netball World Cup. Executive General Manager
Speaker 2: Stacy West has been appointed Netball Australia's acting CEO.
Speaker 3: And the good news three Aussies are in the running
Speaker 3: for a Golden Globe Award. Margot Robbie, Sarah Snook and
Speaker 3: Elizabeth de Bickie have all been nominated. Robbie is up
Speaker 3: for Best Female Actor in a Comedy for Barbie, whilst
Speaker 3: Snook has been nominated for Best Female Actor in a
Speaker 3: TV Show for her portrayal of Shivroy in Succession. Debicki
Speaker 3: is up for Best Female Supporting Actor in a TV
Speaker 3: Show Award, and that is for her performance as Princess
Speaker 3: Diana in The Crown. The ceremony will take place on
Speaker 3: the seventh of January. So Sam, Yesterday we uploaded a
Speaker 3: story on Instagram about the government's new migration plan and
Speaker 3: the very first comment we got was from someone called Jess,
Speaker 3: who commented, would love a deep dive on the pod, Suggess.
Speaker 3: If you are listening your wish is our command and
Speaker 3: today we are going to deep dive into that topic.
Speaker 3: So it's the government's new migration strategy and it came
Speaker 3: as a result of a review of our country's migration
Speaker 3: system and basically maps out where to from here.
Speaker 2: How good is that for a feedback loop with the
Speaker 2: audience that you can request a deep dive in the
Speaker 2: comments and the next day here it is. So I'm
Speaker 2: keen to dive into this. Why was there a review
Speaker 2: in the first place.
Speaker 3: So, as we all know, migration to Australia during COVID
Speaker 3: nineteen all but stopped. We had, of course, those hard
Speaker 3: borders closures and very very strict rules for letting people
Speaker 3: into the country, so not many people arrived from overseas
Speaker 3: between twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. But then naturally,
Speaker 3: as the borders opened and Australia kind of re emerged
Speaker 3: from COVID, we had waves of people coming into the
Speaker 3: country and in the year to March twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: net migration to Australia grew by more than four hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty thousand people.
Speaker 2: Give me a sense of where that fits in terms
Speaker 2: of the usual average.
Speaker 3: So it's a lot. The average in the years before
Speaker 3: COVID was about two hundred thousand a year, so wow,
Speaker 3: double that and then some. And essentially what the government
Speaker 3: is saying is that those migration levels are unsustainable. Home
Speaker 3: Affairs Minister Claire O'Neil went so far as to say
Speaker 3: that the migration system here is broken, and she said
Speaker 3: that the government needed a plan to bring migration numbers
Speaker 3: back to normal.
Speaker 4: When we arrived in government, we found a migration system
Speaker 4: in tatters. It was a system that it wasn't working
Speaker 4: for workers, that wasn't working for business, and that was
Speaker 4: not oriented towards meeting our national interest. Our government has
Speaker 4: picked up this really ambitious reform project and what will
Speaker 4: be launching to you today is a plan that will
Speaker 4: see us address those major challenges in the system. We
Speaker 4: are going to make sure that we bring numbers back
Speaker 4: under control, that we build a better planned system around
Speaker 4: essential things like housing, and perhaps most importantly of all,
Speaker 4: that we build a program that delivers for the national interest.
Speaker 3: So here's the problem as the government sees it, and
Speaker 3: this was what was set out in their strategy. I
Speaker 3: think there are like five main problems, but i'll just
Speaker 3: summarize them Essentially, the reason that they think that there
Speaker 3: needs to be a new strategy is there are too
Speaker 3: many instances of migrant worker exploitation, There are loopholes in
Speaker 3: the system that are allowing people to stay in Australia
Speaker 3: longer than they should be. There is quote insufficient regard
Speaker 3: for pressures on housing and infrastructure in Australia, and skilled
Speaker 3: people are being turned off by what they call a
Speaker 3: very complex and cumbersome migration system. So according to the government,
Speaker 3: that is why they have released this new strategy. They
Speaker 3: say that all needs to change in order for Australia
Speaker 3: to move forward.
Speaker 2: And I think we can all agree that trying to
Speaker 2: change a system is complex and as in demand as
Speaker 2: our migration system is really ambitious. And the government sets
Speaker 2: some pretty ambitious goals and even labeling that problem and
Speaker 2: trying to overcome it, how are they going to actually
Speaker 2: fix the system?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, I mean, there are a few elements to
Speaker 3: the plan, but I want to start with international students
Speaker 3: because I think that that probably overlaps quite significantly with
Speaker 3: the people listening today. So international students make up the
Speaker 3: largest share of what's called permanently temporary, which sounds like
Speaker 3: an oxymoron migrants, so that describes those who have lived
Speaker 3: in Australia for years but without permanent residency. This year,
Speaker 3: nine hundred thousand international students are enrolled to study in Australia.
Speaker 3: That's two point five percent higher than before COVID and
Speaker 3: more than one hundred thousand students and graduates have lived
Speaker 3: in Australia for more than five years. And the government
Speaker 3: has said that students in this category are vulnerable to
Speaker 3: exploitation and are often working below their skill levels.
Speaker 2: And how is that going to change that?
Speaker 3: So essentially it's going to be harder for international students
Speaker 3: to come to Australia. So students will need to get
Speaker 3: a higher minimum result on a standardized English language test,
Speaker 3: so they'll have to complete that test and get a
Speaker 3: higher result in order to come study here. The government
Speaker 3: is also going to roll out something that's called the
Speaker 3: Genuine Student Test, and that will determine whether a visa
Speaker 3: applicants primary intention is to work rather than to study.
Speaker 3: I think it's fair to say there were some strong
Speaker 3: opinions about that in our comment section yesterday. I think
Speaker 3: not everyone agreed that that was the best way forward.
Speaker 3: Those aren't the only reforms in relation to international students,
Speaker 3: though the government will also target what's called ghost schools,
Speaker 3: where some students are allegedly enrolled in study to get
Speaker 3: a visa without actually attending classes. So now the Home
Speaker 3: Affairs Minister will have the power to deem education providers
Speaker 3: as high risk and essentially what that means is that
Speaker 3: visa applications from those providers will be subject to more
Speaker 3: scrutiny before being granted and they'll take longer to process.
Speaker 2: Okay, So moving away from international students, what else did
Speaker 2: the government announce to reform the system?
Speaker 3: So the government said that it is going to target
Speaker 3: the sponsorship program. So sponsors are employers who employ a
Speaker 3: migrant worker and in exchange, they vouch for them, and
Speaker 3: it's a system that's seeing temporary migrants come to depend
Speaker 3: on one single employer because when you're sponsored, you're kind
Speaker 3: of limited in changing workplaces because they're the reason that
Speaker 3: you're in the country or that you can stay in
Speaker 3: the country. Rather, the government says there have been some
Speaker 3: cases of workers being exploited under this ship's system. So
Speaker 3: it's setting up an approved list of employers that can
Speaker 3: sponsored temporary migrant workers and they'll have to update details
Speaker 3: like how many migrant workers they employ and so on.
Speaker 3: The government's also bringing in this thing called a Skills
Speaker 3: in Demand visa, which it says will give some workers
Speaker 3: a path to permanent residents. And remember we said that
Speaker 3: there was this skills shortage that the government had identified,
Speaker 3: so that is their way of rectifying that issue. Not
Speaker 3: everyone agrees those Shadow Immigration Minister Dan tian So, the
Speaker 3: coalition's immigration spokesperson, so that changing the sponsorship system could
Speaker 3: adversely impact the amount of temporary migrants working in hospitals
Speaker 3: and schools, working in regional areas, and he said the
Speaker 3: government's treated regional Australia as an afterthought.
Speaker 2: What else has been the response to the announcement.
Speaker 3: Well, Dantean said that the government had quote opened the
Speaker 3: doors to record migration when Australians were suffering from housing
Speaker 3: shortages and a rental crisis. And there's certain may emerged
Speaker 3: as a bit of a talking point in politics this week,
Speaker 3: this idea that because we have high numbers of migrants
Speaker 3: coming into the country, that that is directly impacting the
Speaker 3: housing crisis that we're experiencing in the country at the moment.
Speaker 3: The Greens, as expected, did not agree with the Opposition
Speaker 3: on this one. They accused Labor of blaming migration for
Speaker 3: the crisis and said there's very little difference between the
Speaker 3: major parties. According to Nick McKim, who is the Greens'
Speaker 3: immigration spokesperson, he said Australia's housing crisis has been caused
Speaker 3: by forty years of deliberate underinvestment in social housing by
Speaker 3: both major parties. So the Greens, they're trying to kind
Speaker 3: of dismantle this argument that migration is somehow directly impacting
Speaker 3: the housing crisis. The government did acknowledge the strain on
Speaker 3: housing and infrastructure, as I mentioned at the top, but
Speaker 3: it certainly seemed to be part of this broader migration
Speaker 3: strategy that they're looking to bring in. So it's a
Speaker 3: major chain to our system and it'll be really interesting
Speaker 3: to see how that unfolds and what it looks like
Speaker 3: and how it actually impacts those migration numbers and who
Speaker 3: is coming into the country in the years to come.
Speaker 2: So this is one of the last kind of major
Speaker 2: reforms we're going to hear about this year from Australian politics.
Speaker 2: Politicians take a bit of time off over December and January,
Speaker 2: so we'll expect this conversation to ramp up again when
Speaker 2: Parliament returns in the new year. That's all we've got
Speaker 2: time for today on the Daily OS. Remember this whole
Speaker 2: episode was based on a comment that we got on
Speaker 2: Instagram from a listener. But you don't have to hop
Speaker 2: over bit to Instagram if you don't want to. You
Speaker 2: can actually just comment in Spotify on this episode. Give
Speaker 2: us your thoughts, send us in the direction of the
Speaker 2: conversations you want to hear, and we'll do our best
Speaker 2: to chase those stories down for you. We'll be back
Speaker 2: again tomorrow morning. Until then, have a wonderful Wednesday.