The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) says new caps on second and third-year working holiday visas will create a new challenge for regional small businesses already struggling to find workers, and whilst skilled migration prioritisation makes sense, other occupations still need reasonable processing times.
Under the changes announced today, second and third-year Working Holiday Maker visas will be capped and allocated through a ballot system, with 45,000 places available for second-year visas and 5,000 for third-year visas.
This compares with around 57,000 second-year and 31,000 third-year visas last year.
COSBOA CEO Skye Cappuccio said the announcement that Working Holiday Maker visa processing times will return to standard for most applicants was encouraging, but it remained unclear exactly what that would mean in the immediate term, with many regional small businesses in need of guarantees of available workers.
She said the new caps would be of major concern for many regional businesses.
“Working holiday makers are an important part of the workforce for many small businesses in regional Australia, particularly in hospitality, tourism and agriculture,” Ms Cappuccio said.
“Putting significant caps on the second and third years creates another challenge.
“For many working holiday makers, getting those additional years means doing specified work in regional Australia. They need to complete 88 days of specified work to qualify for a second year and six months to qualify for a third year.
“We need working holiday makers to see a realistic pathway to a second or third year, because that gives them a reason to do that work and stay in regional communities.
“If that opportunity becomes much harder, we risk losing workers from the regional businesses that need them.”
Ms Cappuccio said the changes to skilled visa processing also needed to work for small businesses outside the priority occupations.
“It makes sense to prioritise areas where Australia desperately needs workers, including construction and agriculture, and this will be welcome news for small businesses in these industries,” Ms Cappuccio said.
“But there are small businesses right across the country looking for skilled people who don’t fit neatly into those priority areas.
“A regional pub might desperately need a qualified chef. They can’t replace that chef with someone from a priority occupation.
“We need to make sure those visa applications are still being processed in a reasonable timeframe. Priority areas shouldn’t mean everyone else ends up with processing times that get in the way of doing business.”
Ms Cappuccio said changes to the permanent skilled migration points system giving housing-related trade qualifications the same weighting as university qualifications were also encouraging.
“We need more skilled tradespeople if we’re going to build more homes, so giving trade qualifications proper weight in the skilled migration system makes sense.
“The important thing is that our migration system gets people with the skills we need to the places they’re needed, without leaving small businesses and regional communities behind.”
