Australian Immigration Daily News

Second Reading Mr COLEMAN (Banks—Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) (09:47) 31 July 2019:

"The bill will give effect to government policy that holders of new provisional skilled regional visas, which come into effect on 16 November 2019, will have access to government services consistent with skilled
permanent visa holders.

The new provisional skilled regional visas are set out in the Migration Amendment (New Skilled Regional
Visas) Regulations 2019.

They are:
 Subclass 491 (Skilled Work Regional (Provisional)) visa for skilled people who are nominated by a state or
territory government or sponsored by an eligible family member to live and work in regional Australia; and
 Subclass 494 (Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional)) visa, enabling an Australian business to
sponsor skilled workers to work in their business in regional Australia.

These new visas are part of the Australian government's plan for Australia's future population to ease the
pressure on the big capitals while supporting the growth of those smaller cities and regions that want more people.

The plan includes reducing the annual migration ceiling from 190,000 to 160,000 places and, in addition, setting aside 23,000 of those places for these new regional visas.

The visas, introduced by regulations tabled in parliament on 2 July 2019, support regional economies to get the skills they need.

A key feature of the new visas is a requirement for regional migrants to live and work in a regional area for
three years before being eligible for permanent residence.

This will encourage visa holders to remain in regional Australia, which in turn will support the local
communities and enhance the economies of regional parts of the nation.

The amendments in this bill will ensure that holders of the new visas have access to government services in line with the current arrangements applicable to permanent residence visas.

These changes will have a low financial impact while ensuring that provisional skilled regional visa holders are not disadvantaged compared to holders of permanent skilled visas available for people to work in metropolitan areas.

Changes to legislation, service delivery and ICT systems—administered by the Department of Social Services,
Services Australia, the Department of Education and the Attorney-General's Department—are required in order to give effect to the government's policy regarding holders of these new visas.

This would be subject to meeting the same eligibility requirements for the payments and services and serving
the same applicable waiting periods that exist for permanent skilled visa holders.

These visa holders will be supporting local economies and contributing to rural and regional communities
throughout Australia. I commend this bill to the House."

Source: New-Skilled-Regional-Visas-Consequential-Amendments--Bill-House-of-Reps-31-July-1.pdf