TRANSCRIPT
A visa to Australia is a highly coveted ticket.
But a pause is now being pressed on one particular migration stream targeting business entrepreneurs and wealthy investors.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has closed new applications to the Business Innovation and Investment Program, also known as the Golden Visa.
Brendan Coates is the Economic Policy Program Director at the Grattan Institute.
He explains why skilled workers are more valuable to Australia than multi-millionaires.
“Compared to every other part of our skilled migration program, this program attracts older, less-skilled migrants who tend to contribute relatively little to Australia. They cost the Australian taxpayer more in government services and supports than they draw in taxes over their lifetimes. And every visa we're offering through this program is one less visa we are offering for a young skilled worker who contributes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the government's budget bottom line over decades.”
Chris Johnson is with Work Visa Lawyers.
“They were actually trying to get successful business people, investors, big investors and entrepreneurs, that's what they were aiming for. And so it's it's got different aims within this one program. You will probably notice that a lot of the talk about it is actually focusing mostly on what they call the golden visa, which is the significant investor visa which has the largest amount of investment in it. That actually made up the smallest amount of the program.”
Visas available through the pathway have steadily fallen from a height of around 11,000 places in 2020 to mid-2022, to 5,000 spots in the financial year 2022-2023, and just 1,900 planned for this financial year.
The immigration minister last month said change would be coming to migration after what she said was years of neglect by the previous government.
“This is about Australia's future. We've got some really big national challenges that we face as a country. We've got sluggish prosperity growth, which is affecting the wealth of Australian households. We've got a really fast ageing population and we do not have the workers we need to care for them. We've got an urgent need to transition to a net zero economy, and we don't have the skills and capabilities here to do it. And we face the most challenging direct geostrategic circumstances in our region that we're seeing in 70 years, and we need to build sovereign capabilities fast.”
Ms O'Neil this week issued a statement saying it has been obvious for years that this visa is not delivering what Australia and its economy needs from a migration system.
There's debate over whether Golden Visa holders actually stimulate the economy, as Chris Johnson explains.
“One thing about business and investor visa holders is they usually have a significant amount of capital. So they come to Australia, they put their kids into private schools, they spend on everything they actually often they would spend a lot more money and undertake a lot more activities than would your average Australian, so one of the benefits is that they would be a stimulant to the Australian economy.”
The federal government must now decide how it handles a backlog of some 30,000 applications already on hand.
Abul Rizvy is an immigration analyst.
“Well, I think firstly, it has a very, very large backlog of applications. So it doesn't actually need any new applications. And it won't nominate any more people this year because of the number of applications either already has on hand. Secondly, there have been concerns raised about this visa, particularly the investor part of it, that the investor part of it is turning into an essentially retirement visa for rich people. Rich, more or less older people, and it doesn't isn't delivering much in the way of benefit to Australia. It's against that background that the government is keen to make changes to the visa. It hasn't yet announced what those changes are. It's still considering that .”
He thinks the government should get rid of the visa, or amend its conditions.
“In my view, the best thing to do with this investor visa would be to abolish it and find a way of dealing with the backlog of applications. The backlog is very large. I think the government should return this visa to one which encourages people to invest in new and innovative businesses in Australia, employ Australians and run those businesses successfully. They are the people this visa should be targeting.”
A major review found skilled migrants contribute $300,000 more over their lifetime than those who bought their way into the country.
