Documents seen by The Weekend Australian show the department of immigration told the Workplace and Productivity Agency that its research showed “there continues to be a surplus of qualified accountants’’ in Australia. While this has failed to result in the removal of accountants from the skills list, it has however resulted in a reduction in the number of places for accountants on the skills list.

The Australian Workplace and Productivity Agency recommends annually which occupations be added or ­removed from the skills occupation list based on its research and submissions from various groups and agencies. The AWPA said DIBPs submission was only one of seven submissions it received that called for accountants to be removed from the list. Many others said  the occupation needed to remain on the list.

According to The Weekend Australian, among arguments in support of foreign accountants was that changes to taxation law and regulations would increase demand. “Pending repeals of the carbon tax and the mineral resources rent tax were cited as examples of initiatives which will drive further demand for accounting services, along with changes to superannuation laws,’’ the agency said.

Under the general skilled ­migration program, professionals and other skilled migrants can enter Australia without being sponsored by an employer. While they have to nominate an occupation on the skilled occupation list, there is no obligation for them to work in that occupation.

The government has capped the program at 43,990 skilled visas next financial year. For each of the professions on the list, the number of positions available is capped at 6 per cent of the occupation’s workforce. After the agency agreed to ­reduce the cap for accountants to 4.5 per cent, the Assistant Minister for Immigration, Michaelia Cash, said the government had decided to reduce the cap further to 3 per cent.

Backpackers are unreliable in the fruit-picking business because despite the training invested in them, few return for the next season’s work. This has had industry bodies calling for an expansion of the Seasonal Worker Scheme to include South East Asian workers in order to provide the industry with a pool of reliable trained workers who will likely return each season.

The Seasonal Worker Program has been running since 2012 and currently allows farmers to employ workers from eight Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste, but only when they cannot find enough local workers to meet seasonal demand.

The ABC reports that the Northern Territory's new parliamentary secretary for Northern Development has backed calls from Top End growers to expand the Seasonal Worker Program to address labour shortages in horticulture.

Country Liberal MLA and mango grower Gary Higgins, says the Territory's mango industry would be better off, and could even expand, if workers were allowed in from South East Asian countries such as Vietnam.

He says the industry needs an alternative to backpackers.

The former Labour government’s overhauled business migration program saw a 90 percent fall in visa grants to business migrants due to unrealistic criteria. A joint parliamentary inquiry, essentially set up to study the failure of Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP),  and make recommendations,  has heard the program is “plagued by slow processing, unpredictable outcomes and selection criteria that deter good candidates in a search for ideal, younger migrants”.

The Australian reports that only 652 visas were granted over the first 21 months of the BIIP scheme, since its introduction in 2012.  That compares with 6790 in the final year of the system it ­replaced, the Business Skills ­Program. The department, in its submission to the inquiry, indicated the plunge in applicants “will make it increasingly difficult to maintain the number of business migrants as a proportion of the overall permanent migration program”.

“While there are sufficient ­applications under the previous business skills program to guarantee the 2013-14 program, the application rate may put the delivery of the 2014-15 program in question,” the submission read.

Sydney legal firm Immigration Solutions Lawyers, in its submission, blamed the “enormous decline” in applicants to “overly onerous” selection criteria that strive for an unrealistic ideal.

“A desirable candidate is someone between 35-39 years of age with a business turnover that is not under $1 million, with at least four years business experience and who has $1.3m in assets,” it read. “However, such a candidate would be unlikely to elect Australia due to heavy government regulation, taxation, and it being a relatively small market on the very outskirts of the Pacific Rim.”

A joint media statement from Andrew Robb – Minister for Trade and Investment, and Michaelia Cash – Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, states that "No existing occupations are being removed from the SOL, which currently lists 188 occupations that Australia needs."  Here is the full press release:

Chefs, bricklayers and wall and floor tilers will be added to the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) from July 1 to help meet the skills needs of the Australian economy, as announced today by the Minister for Trade and Investment, the Hon. Andrew Robb, and the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash.

Minister Robb said the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA) works independently of government to provide annual recommendations on the composition of the SOL to ensure it responds to Australia's changing skill needs.

Chefs, along with bricklayers and wall and floor tilers, will be added to the Skilled Occupation List from July, making it easier for suitably-qualified people to secure a visa to enter, live and work in Australia, reports The Australian.

Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Michaelia Cash said the addition of the three professions would be welcomed in regional areas where there was increased demand for these jobs but “a decrease in apprenticeship completions’’.

“As an island nation with a small population, a sustainable human capital strategy for Australia must be readily available to safeguard business from labour and skills shortages,’’ Senator Cash said.

According to news reports the government has capped the program at 43,990 skilled visas next financial year. For each of the professions on the list, the number of positions available is capped at 6 per cent of the occupation’s workforce.