Does Australia need an expert commission to assist with managing its labour migration program?

Abstract

Labour migration policymaking involves many complexities and necessitates compromise between competing interests and objectives. In recent decades there has been a number of key shifts in Australia’s labour migration settings. Of particular significance is the shift from supply driven to demand driven migration as employers have been given significant responsibility for determining the composition of Australia’s labour migration intake. Drawing on two international case examples, I argue that an expert commission would better enable effective migration policymaking as it would provide oversight of requests from employers to access migrant labour and serve an important coordination function between Australia’s temporary and permanent migration visa programs.