This appeared last week:
Visa shake-up relegates cyber skills despite ‘worst ever’ crisis
Paul Smith Technology editor
Nov 2, 2022 – 9.35am
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has stunned the technology industry by introducing skilled migration rules the peak body says will make it harder to bring in cyber experts, software engineers and technology developers, amid a cyber crisis and well-documented skills shortage.
Late last week while the data breach crisis at health insurer Medibank was unfolding, Ms O’Neil introduced a ministerial direction to change how migration agents prioritise skilled visa applications. The direction removed 27 job roles - including ICT security specialists - from the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL).
The move by Ms O’Neil, who is also the Cyber Security Minister, came as part of a broader shake-up of skilled visa processing, which aims to prioritise fixing talent shortages in health, education and across regional Australia.
However, it has shocked industry as the spate of recent cyber breaches, headlined by Optus and Medibank, has shown the need for companies to bulk up on cyber expertise.
Ms O’Neil said the changes would speed up visa processing times across all categories including cybersecurity and tech, but both Tech Council of Australia boss Kate Pounder and Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia chief Alexi Boyd disagreed, and expressed alarm at the sudden change, made without industry consultation.
“The biggest issue for anyone trying to hire a cybersecurity professional or a tech worker via the skilled migration system is processing times. They are still being measured in months in Australia, compared to days in our competitive markets,” Ms Pounder said.
“It is a surprise that in the midst of our worst ever national cyber security crisis, the government has decided it was the opportune time to de-prioritise these skills in our migration system.”
Following the new ministerial direction, applications for visas in the affected categories, which were previously processed with higher priority, will join the back of the queue. There are certain exemptions possible for big companies, but they exclude many technology start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses.
Job titles removed from the PMSOL related to tech and cyber skills include ICT security specialists, analyst programmers, developer programmers, software engineers and software and applications programmers.
Other jobs removed include chief executives, accountants, engineers, veterinarians and chefs.
Lots more here:
Surely what is needed is removal of any restrictions in these domains. Any properly qualified person that is supported by a company to come should be given a ticket and visa instantly given all the issue we are seeing. Maybe a review in 12-18 months but it should be open slather for qualified applicants till then!
The minister is simply being silly I reckon!
What do you think?
David.
I think ASIO has advised the Minister that one important step to take is to restrict IT visas to guard against cyber criminals entering Australia and infiltrating the IT departments of our major companies, and instead grow our own IT expertise organically. That makes a lot of sense to me.
ReplyDelete