The Albanese government will shake up migration after a review found the system was not meeting either current or future needs.
The overhaul, to be announced by Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil on Thursday, will cover permanent residency for temporary visa holders and ways to bring in skilled migrants to boost the economy.
About two million people in Australia are on temporary visas, with about 10 percent a year becoming permanent migrants.
O'Neil commissioned the review last year and will flesh out the government’s new policy when she addresses the National Press Club.
“Our migration system is broken. It’s not delivering for Australians. It’s not delivering for our businesses, and it’s not delivering for migrants themselves,” she told ABC’s 7.30 Report on Wednesday night.
“It is a horrendously complex system that makes it really hard to bring high-skilled workers into the country who will lift productivity.”
O'Neil said for employers in tech-based industries, for example, the skills list was “archaic” and “out of date.”
She said wage exploitation of temporary migrant workers was also rife and needed to be curbed.
O'Neil warned Australia risked falling behind other developed immigrant countries, such as Canada, by becoming a nation of “permanently temporary” residents.
Some employer groups have called for looser restrictions on skilled migration caps and target industries, while others want a rethink of English language requirements and rules regarding post-study employment.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said the government needed to ensure the new policies and settings did not put undue pressure on the already stretched rental housing market.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Australia was a richer country because of the millions of migrants who had come to its shores.
But the size, composition and timing of the migration intake were “legitimate areas for public debate”, he told Sky News.
“It’s time for (the government) to front up and provide some answers - what is their plan, how many people do they intend to bring in, how are they going to reduce the numbers of temporary visa holders while also solving the skills shortage?” Senator Paterson said.
Parliamentary Intelligence and security committee chair and Labor MP Peter Khalil said the migration system was “unjust, slow and unplanned”.
“Over the last nine years under a Liberal government, it’s become a dog’s breakfast,” he told Sky News.
Khalil said one of the key problems was the increase in temporary visas while permanent migration had largely remained steady.
He said migrants who were allowed in the past to “put a stake in the ground” had gone on to build modern-day Australia.
