Migration Amendment (Strengthening Sponsorship and Nomination Processes) Bill 2024
The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee in response to proposed Migration Amendment (Strengthening Sponsorship and Nomination Processes) Bill 2024 (Bill).
The Bill seeks to amend the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) to legislate income threshold requirements for skilled workers, and to introduce a public register of approved sponsors in the name of transparency and accessibility.
The Law Council acknowledges that the Bill is the next step in the Australian Government’s implementation of its 2023 Migration Strategy.1 The Law Council generally welcomes the appropriate adjustment of income thresholds and allowing more time for Labour Market Testing (LMT).
However, some aspects of the Bill have raised concerns among the legal profession. The main points about the Bill that the Law Council’s migration law experts wish to emphasise are:
- The proposed publicly available sponsor register (section 140GE) raises several serious issues (detailed below) and is not supported.
- While the revised income thresholds to replace the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold are most likely necessary, it would make more sense in terms of flexibility to be able to adjust them by regulation, rather than enshrine them in legislation. The indexation proposal and basis for their calculation are also questionable as set out below.
- The extension of the LMT period from four to six months is welcome, although the Law Council made a number of additional recommendations with respect to LMT in 2023 that have not been taken up by Government. We encourage this Committee to consider adopting those recommendations.
- The interaction between the ‘essential skills’ mentioned in the Explanatory Memorandum to this Bill and lists such as the Core Skills Occupation List (currently being revised by Jobs and Skills Australia) – is unclear. The Law Council indicated in a recent submission to JSA that it does not support such occupation lists, as explained below.
Read the full submission below.
1 Department of Home Affairs, Migration Strategy: <https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/migration-strategy>.
Last Updated on 22/08/2024