Redistributing migrants: the labor agenda

The Labour party has commissioned a report by Withers and Powell which recommends measures designed to locate 45 per cent of Australia’s new settlers in regional areas (compared with 10 per cent currently). The recommendations will result in lower skill selection standards and weaker performance requirements for two stage visas than is the case with the existing regional migration schemes. Analysis of these schemes, particularly those connected with business migration, indicate that selection and performance standards should be tightened, not softened. In the case of the largest regional program, that providing selection concessions for relatives sponsored by residents who live in ‘designated areas’, nearly two-thirds of the sponsored migrants are locating in Melbourne