The Federal government has continued its crackdown on foreign workers in the federal budget. After scrapping the 457 visa program, now the Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced a levy on skilled visas to set up a new skill building fund.
The Treasurer has announced an annual foreign worker levy of $1,200 or $1,800 per worker per year on temporary work visas. Employers sponsoring permanent skilled visas will face a $3,000 or $5,000 one-off levy.
Scott Morrison said under the existing arrangement, employers employing foreign workers were required to contribute 1 or 2 per cent of their payroll to training- a requirement- he said was difficult to police. The new levy replaces the earlier arrangement from March 2018.
“Skilled migration has always played a significant role in driving our economic growth.
"But it must be on our terms and we must skill more Australians to secure jobs,” said Treasurer Scott Morrison.
Small businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million will have to pay an annual levy of $1,200 for sponsoring a foreign worker's temporary visa and a one-time charge of $3,000 for a permanent skilled visa.
For medium and large businesses (with over $10 million turnover) the levy is $1,800 per year and one-off $5,000 for a temporary and a permanent visa respectively.
Over the next four years, $1.2 billion will be raised from this levy that will contribute directly to a new Commonwealth-State Skilling Australians Fund.
States and Territories will only be able to draw on this fund when they deliver on their commitments to train new apprentices.
There’s also higher charges on visa application fees.
From July 1, 2017, fees will be indexed in line with inflation, generating $410 million over the forward estimates period.
The Budget measure is expected to earn the government more than $400 million over the next four years.
In the budget, the government has also announced a new temporary parental visa that will allow parents of migrants to stay in Australia for up to ten years. The visa will be available from November this year.
Associate Professor of Business and Law, Harminder Singh analyses the federal budget
