Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, I present the committee’s report, entitled Negotiating the maze: review of arrangements for overseas skills recognition, upgrading and licensing, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—Skilled migration is the subject of much comment in the Australian community. There is concern that the level of skills of those coming into the country is not equivalent to Australian quality and safety standards and that lower skilled workers are being used to undercut the wages of existing workers. People need to know that Australia’s skills recognition system is fair and well managed. A strong commitment to local workers and improving the skill levels of our current workforce is essential. However, skilled migration is an additional method of addressing the immediate skills shortages facing Australia.

Australia currently needs overseas trained workers such as doctors, engineers, electricians and plumbers. An overly bureaucratic system that impedes the timely arrival of much needed skilled labour does not assist industry in providing economic growth for Australia. Anecdotal evidence from my own state, for example, suggests that a lack of skilled workers is having a serious impact on plans for a number of major mining ventures. For all of these reasons, this was a very timely inquiry for the committee to undertake. The current picture is complex and a number of witnesses likened the task of navigating Australia’s skills recognition system to trying to find their way through a maze. If they started in the wrong place, they might find themselves lost in a bureaucratic muddle, unable to go forward or back.

I want to highlight four areas that were of particular interest to the committee. Firstly, the report looks at how Australia’s skills recognition and licensing arrangements can be streamlined and simplified. The committee’s recommendations combine with recent Council of Australian Governments initiatives to create a more streamlined framework for the future. The committee supports COAG’s initiative for the creation of national skills assessment and registration bodies for the health profession. For the non-health professions, the committee recommends continuation of existing arrangements but with improved monitoring by the Department of Education, Science and Training.

For the trades, the committee strongly supports COAG’s push for more effective mutual recognition arrangements between the states and territories and new offshore assessment processes for trades in demand. However, the committee highlights the need for an accelerated time frame for these arrangements and recommends a tripartite review of the initiative. The committee also recommends that the Tradesmen’s Rights Regulation Act 1946 be repealed and that Trades Recognition Australia confine its activities to international assessment of overseas qualifications, with the states and territories to take on the domestic trades assessment role.

Secondly, the report examines how Australia’s skills recognition procedures can be improved. As the committee heard during the inquiry, many migrants have been frustrated by a lack of information on skills recognition processes, the gap between migration assessment and employment assessment, the cost of skills assessments and the time taken to complete assessment processes.

The committee was concerned, for example, to hear the account of a physiotherapist who sought overseas skills recognition through the relevant assessment authority. The process took two years, including three attempts at a written exam costing $1,100 each time. In one particular year, 11 out of 76 candidates passed the written exam. When questions from the test were put to some Australian physiotherapists, they admitted that they could not answer many of them. The committee has responded to these concerns with a series of recommendations.

Thirdly, another question facing the committee was how the process of trades recognition and licensing could be fast-tracked without detriment to the skills levels of trades. The ideal situation would be for skilled migrants to arrive in Australia job ready and able to enter the workforce in particular occupations without further delay and for there to be a uniform licensing system across Australia. As already discussed, the committee therefore supports recent COAG initiatives in this area.

The committee also had serious concerns about the performance of Trades Recognition Australia—or TRA, as it is known. This was a strong theme in evidence to the inquiry with comments about the lengthy processing times, closure of TRA state offices in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania and restricted telephone contact hours. Inconsistencies in assessment outcomes were also raised. It is to be said that TRA did lift its game part way through the inquiry in response to the committee’s scrutiny. The committee hopes that TRA continues to improve its performance.

Finally, another issue facing the committee was what can be done to make sure that the qualifications of overseas trained doctors are properly assessed. The Australian Medical Council’s comments to the committee about overseas trained doctors were of great concern. Mr Speaker, as I am out of time and it is relevant to the report, I seek leave to table the remainder of my speech.

Leave granted.

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