Overseas-born chief executives could be exempt from the federal government’s visa crackdown, according to reports, amid criticism from business groups that the changes would drive away quality candidates and increase salary expectations.
The federal government announced its changes to the visa system in April. As well as stricter citizenship and permanent residency requirements, the changes included the removal of more than 200 job titles from eligibility lists. It also replaced the 457 visa system with two classes of temporary skilled visas, for either two or four years.
A revised list of ineligible occupations is expected to be released in coming weeks and the Australian Financial Review on Monday reported industry sectors believe recent lobbying to the immigration department will return positive results.
“We have every reason to believe that CEOs will be an occupation that will be addressed,” Jenny Lambert, the director of employment, education and training at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told the AFR.
Lambert has previously said it would create some challenges for businesses but otherwise expressed support for the changes as a “targeted program” that would build confidence in the system. She was unavailable for further comment on Monday.
The federal government had been accepting submissions on the changes until last Friday.
There have been concerns that if paths to permanent residency are in effect cut off, high-level positions such as CEOs, as well as university lecturers and PhD candidates, will be harder to fill.
Several high-profile executives of Australian companies have been caught out by the planned changes, needing to reapply for visas after two years and without accessing permanent residency.
The Business Council of Australia said limiting CEOs to a two-year visa would create significant recruitment barriers.
“For many multinational businesses operating in Australia it can be vitally important to appoint a CEO with the relevant skills and corporate experience to run major operations and often these people are from outside Australia,” a spokesman said.
“We have many excellent candidates for chief executive roles in Australia but, because of the company-specific nature of the job or the global experience required, it is not always a position you can train Australians to do.”
The GrainCorp chairman, Graham Bradley, told the AFR the changes would seriously affect positions like chief technology officers, which needed “truly global experience”.
“If you can only offer them a two-year stint it is hardly worth the trouble of relocating their families and disrupting their children’s schooling.”
Some business and industry groups had expressed in-principal support for the changes in order to stop the visa system becoming a de facto path to permanent residency, but are concerned it may be at the expense of genuine skills shortages.
Ged Kearney, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, previously dubbed the changes “457-lite” because many occupations for which there was no skills shortage remained on eligibility lists.
The hospitality and tourism industry have primarily expressed concern that the new restrictions will impact on the already in-demand availability of cooks and chefs, as well as accommodation workers in regional areas and other labour market gaps.
The sectors fear the new changes could exacerbate predictions of a skills shortage of 60,000 positions by 2020 and it is understood the government is being pushed to keep or move specific positions on to the four-year medium and long-term skills shortage list.
Shortages of cooks – which currently account for 7% of 457 visas issued – and chefs are already evident in New South Wales, Queensland, the ACT, the Northern Territory and South Australia, and a shortage of restaurant and cafe managers is also forecast to dramatically increase in coming years.
In discussions with the government, Universities Australia has also sought the removal of work experience requirements for PhD students and to put lecturer and tutor positions back on the four-year class of visas.
The Universities Australia chief executive, Belinda Robinson, said conversations had been productive but a number of issues were still being worked out.
She said the government understood the risks to the university sector if it didn’t get this right, and there was significant anxiety among the international sector.
“If we can entice the very best of that talent to Australia, it will pay dividends for an entire generation ahead,” Robinson said.
“It will mean we can secure world leaders in frontier research to help to make Australia the global epicentre of research specialisations. And we can supplement our ranks of excellent Australian lecturers with outstanding global teachers – to ensure our own students get the very best university education. And that will mean we can generate more local jobs for Australian graduates, researchers, innovators and industries. It’s a virtuous cycle.”
“The flipside is this: if we don’t get this right, we’ll squander a huge competitive advantage – and we’ll miss out on income, technology, jobs and growth for Australia.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration said it and the minister, Peter Dutton, had “actively engaged with a broad range of affected stakeholders, to listen to their concerns”.
She said the visa changes were designed “to ensure Australian workers are given the absolute first priority for jobs”, while also addressing skills shortages. The occupations lists will be subject to regular reviews every six or 12 months.
