Australian Immigration Daily News

The instrument amends LIN 19/048 and LIN 19/219 to introduce the Health Workforce Exemption Certificate (HWEC), which is a certificate exempting sponsors who are hospital employers from the requirement of obtaining a Health Workforce Certificate (HWC) each time the sponsor nominates a hospital-based position in one of the following medical occupations: General Practitioner, Resident Medical Officer, or Medical Practitioner (not elsewhere classified).

The instrument amends Migration (LIN 19/048: Specification of Occupations— Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2019 (F2019C00265) and Migration (LIN 19/219: Occupations for Subclass 494 Visa) Instrument 2019 (F2019L01403) in accordance with subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (the AIA). Subsection 33(3) of the AIA states that where an Act confers a power to make, grant or issue any instrument of a legislative or administrative character, the power shall be construed as including a power exercisable in the like manner and subject to the like conditions (if any) to repeal, rescind, revoke, amend, or vary any such instrument.

The instrument amends LIN 19/048 and LIN 19/219 to introduce the Health Workforce Exemption Certificate (HWEC), which is a certificate exempting sponsors who are hospital employers from the requirement of obtaining a Health Workforce Certificate (HWC) each time the sponsor nominates a hospital-based position in one of the following medical occupations: General Practitioner, Resident Medical Officer, or Medical Practitioner (not elsewhere classified).

The instrument operates so that a sponsoring employer can obtain a HWEC, which is valid for 12 months. A HWEC may be utilised for multiple nominations for a medical occupation position based in a hospital during the 12 month period. This is intended to reduce the administrative burden for hospital-based sponsors so they do not have to obtain a HWC each time they wish to nominate a prospective employee for a hospital-based position.

The purpose of the instrument is to implement the requirement for a hospital employer who is a sponsor to obtain a current HWEC for a nomination for a hospital-based position. The HWC that was already specified in LIN 19/048 and LIN 19/219 continues to be required to be obtained by a sponsoring employer for a nomination for non-hospital-based positions.

Source: LIN20274.pdf and LIN20274-Explanatory-Statement.pdf