Boost skilled migrant intake to help build the next Atlassian or Canva, Tech Council says ahead of Jobs Summit

Australia must significantly boost its skilled migrant intake and streamline the application system if the nation plans to prioritise its tech startups, the Tech Council of Australia says ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit.

The Tech Council of Australia, which advocates for local tech titans like like Atlassian, Canva, and Employment Hero, on Wednesday revealed a report detailing its agenda for tomorrow’s landmark meeting.

Around 2.3% of the world’s billion-dollar ‘unicorn’ companies are homegrown, the organisation says, meaning Australia is batting above its average compared to other global competitors.

However, with productivity a major focus of the summit, the group says more must be done to take advantage of the opportunities tech development could provide the Australian economy.

The group is calling for 1.2 million people to hold tech jobs in Australia by 2030, helping to drive the sector’s economic activity to $250 billion a year by the end of the decade.

“If Australia can combine our strength in software with our industry and research strengths in areas such as mining and resources, quantum, energy, the environment, education and construction and property, we can accelerate our success even further,” said Tech Council chair Robyn Denholm.

To meet those targets, Australia must significantly reform its migrant intake system, the report says, making up for the loss of talent through pandemic-induced border closures and expanding the skills base beyond pre-COVID levels.

An extra 4500 skilled migrants per year should be welcomed into Australia per year until 2030, the Tech Council says.

At the same time, the government must rethink its visa application system to respond more quickly to pressing skills shortages, the organisation argued.

Working to “reduce processing times and streamline low-risk applications in areas of high need, such as experienced, high-paid, employer sponsored talent in areas experiencing chronic skills shortages” would improve the system’s productivity, the report said.

The Tech Council also calls for 19,000 new tech job entrants per year, and the upskilling of 35,000 workers per year, to meet its 2030 goals.

Migration settings a key focus of Jobs and Skills Summit

Tweaks to Australia’s migrant intake have been a hot topic in the lead-up to the Jobs and Skills Summit.

With the unemployment level at historic lows, tech employers say there has rarely been a harder time to find and attract the right talent in Australia.

Industry calls for boosted migration levels to meet that need have been met by proposals from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), another Jobs and Skills Summit participant.

The union movement supports elevated migrant intake — if those visas are complemented by viable pathways to permanent residency, and boosted government funding for TAFE places and local apprentices.

The Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia (FECCA), which will also be represented at the summit, also agrees tweaks to Australia’s migrant intake system are required.

Sluggish updates to the nation’s Skills Occupation List has resulted in “migrants arriving to find a lack of vacancies in their industry”, the organisation says.

“The development and implementation of the skills shortage lists must be reviewed and changed to be forward-looking, efficient and allow more flexibility for skilled migrants.

“The systems in place to create the lists are overly convoluted, slow, and backwards not forwards looking.

“Slow visa processing compounds this issue, with the result often being a gap of multiple years between a skill being placed on the list and the relevant skilled migrant arriving.”

Employer-sponsored visas should be replaced by industry-wide visas to reduce worker exploitation by individual businesses, FECCA says, with a similar proposal put forward by the ACTU itself.

The Jobs and Skills Summit kicks off tomorrow in Canberra.