Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan revealed a healthy increase of almost 300,000 more permanent and temporary visas to Australia as a part of the Labor Party Budget for the 2008-09. This is the biggest annual increase in visas in the history of Australia's migration program.
The new budget accommodates for an extra 31,000 skilled migrant visas, and over 150,000 other permanent migrant visas such as family visas & spouse visas. There are also 100,000 new temporary work visas available. This move is aimed to address the current skills shortage in Australia, while other initiatives such as training & education have been introduced to provide long term solutions to skills shortages.
Senator Chris Evans, immigration minister for Australia, commented on the budget changes; "My general view is that we are increasingly facing a labour shortage, not just a skills shortage,".
Senator Evans explained that the labour shortage was not restricted to skilled & professional fields, but was being experienced in almost every industry. "The demand is often for truck drivers, store managers, below tradesman-level jobs in the mining industry," said the Senator.
These changes are part of the government's plan to meet the increasing labour demands of Australian businesses. Senator Evans commented "At the moment there is a real constraint on our capacity to grow because we just don't have enough workers,".
The end result of these budget changes are that there are now more opportunities than ever before for skilled workers to migrate to Australia, permanently or temporarily to live & work.
If you are interested in living & working in Australia, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to Australia.
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