The Australian Government has established a fund called “Skilling Australians Fund” and will fund this to the tune of $1.5 billion over four years. Gerald Santucci, reviews the effects of the 2017 federal budget on migration.
The Skilling Australians Fund is intended to support 300,000 apprentices and trainees (presumably all Australians). The timing of the creation of the fund is to be coupled with the introduction in the 2017 Federal budget of two new migration “fees” in relation to skilled workers.
From March 2018, businesses with turnover of less than $10 million per year will be required to:

  • Make an upfront payment of $1,200 per visa per year for each employee on a Temporary Skill Shortage visa
  • A one-off payment of $3,000 for each employee being sponsored for a permanent Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) visa or a permanent Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187) visa.

Businesses with turnover of $10 million or more per year will be required to:

  • Make an upfront payment of $1,800 per visa year for each employee on a Temporary Skill Shortage visa
  • A one-off payment of $5,000 for each employee being sponsored for a permanent Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) visa or a permanent Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187) visa.

One advantage of these fees is that they are to replace the current training benchmarks for employers sponsoring workers on Subclass 457 and permanent Employer Nomination Scheme Subclass 186 visas.
This measure is estimated to produce about $1.2 billion of the $1.5 billion budgeted to set up the Skilling Australians Fund. How this impacts existing registered training funds is yet to be determined.
It is curious that those regional businesses which are struggling to attract employees will now have an additional burden put on them by the Commonwealth Government when the encouragement should be for people to move to regional areas where the housing market is much more affordable.

How can Snedden Hall & Gallop help you?

Snedden Hall & Gallop’s migration team is one of the most experienced in Australia. Gerald and his team are migration lawyers and migration agents. Please contact them for any migration matter by phone on (02) 6285 8000 or by email and you can see details of our migration team here.