The pre-COVID review of Australia’s skilled migration lists, after all the effort and anticipation, has been “put aside” according to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment new website.

The coronavirus pandemic laid waste to the plans of many individuals, businesses, organisations, and governments. Rational predictions, projections and forecasts one year ago would not have come to fruition this year nor accounted for the effect COVID-19 has had in 2020 and no doubt will in the future.

With substantial changes comes the reassessment of the assumptions and desired outcomes of previous work. In Australia’s immigration program, amendments to its skilled occupation lists were expected to be finalised sometime around March 2020. To state the obvious, March threw up challenges to the government and the Department of Home Affairs, which demoted the need for policy decisions on occupation lists given other more immediate priorities.

Occupation lists affect almost all permanent skilled and many temporary skilled visas:

• Subclass 407 – Training visas,

• Subclass 482 - Temporary Skill Shortage visas,

• Subclass 485 - Temporary Graduate visas under the Graduate Work stream,

• Subclass 494 – Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visas,

• Subclass 491 – Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visas,

• Subclass 186 - Employer Nomination Scheme visas,

• Subclass 187 - Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visas,

• Subclass 189 - Skilled – Independent visas, and

• Subclass 190 - Skilled – Nominated visas.

All subclasses have their own lists except for a single list for all General Skilled Migration (GSM) visas: 491, 485, 189, and 190 visas.

They are extremely important to the skilled migration program. For example, for 482 visas, it can determine how long a visa can be granted for depending on which “sub-list” the occupation is on. The most significant factor, however, is ultimately that they determine whether a person may be eligible for a visa. This can be the difference between becoming an Australian permanent resident and/or eventually a citizen, or not.

Recommendations on what occupations should be added or removed on these lists fall to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), who analyses the labour market and make recommendations to the Department of Home Affairs who then may or may not act on them.

In the seven-step review, the DESE’s website’s progress has been stuck on the penultimate Stage 6: Provide recommendations to Government. The last stage was simply for the Minister to announce and implement changes.

However, the DESE’s new website has clarified that:

Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the March 2020 update to the skilled migration occupation lists has been put aside.

“Put aside” is a likely euphemism for abandoned. Obviously, the upheaval due to COVID-19 on Australia’s economy and labour market have given pause for thought on any changes to the occupation lists and the accessibility of visas for skilled workers. While this is a relief for those in occupations recommended for removal, the flip side is the inability to apply for a visa for an occupation not currently available. For instance, the following occupations were slated to be added to the Short-Term Skilled Occupation List with a caveat of a mandatory skill assessment, according to the published Traffic Light Bulletin:

• 423313 Personal Care Assistant

• 423111 Aged or Disabled Carer

• 423312 Nursing Support Worker

Aged carers and personal care assistants were so critical to Australia’s response to COVID-19, workers in these sectors can apply for a Subclass 408 – Temporary Activities visa to extend their stay in Australia and continue to work in these sectors.

If these occupations were added, whether they would have been able to be considered for an employer-sponsored 482 or 494 visa, or a GSM visa, and therefore the potential to become a permanent resident may never be known.

It would also have made redundant the requirement for businesses to apply for a labour agreement, as this is the only way businesses can sponsor skilled workers in these occupations outside of the standard business sponsor regime, which is the purposes of the 482 and 494 occupation lists.