Last Friday, the Assistant Minister for Immigration announced at the MIA event that this year’s state nomination quotas would be cut. Only a few days later, WA has now received word — the federal government is slashing approximately 1/3 of its places, reducing the allocation from 5,000 last year down to 3,400.
According to news reports, the WA Premier is still making a final push, hoping the federal government will maintain last financial year’s total allocation of 5,000 places — including 2,000 for the 491 — to address WA’s ongoing labour shortages, particularly in construction-related occupations.
The WA Premier’s letter also notes that the total nationwide allocation of 26,260 places may be reduced to 20,350 — a cut of 5,910 places, or roughly 22%. This means the other states will collectively lose a further 4,310 places, with each state likely to see varying degrees of reduction. For now, however, WA appears to be bearing the brunt. The federal government is also considering removing Perth from the regional-area designation, which the Premier has clearly opposed. Perth was only added back a few years ago and now faces being removed once again — yet another real-world case of policy flip-flopping, leaving applicants unable to plan ahead.
Image 3 — the original text of Thursday’s letter from the Premier. State nomination allocations remain a lingering struggle, with the states and the federal government continuing to lock horns. Let’s hope there’s still room for a turnaround in the end.
It seems the situation in the other states is unlikely to be optimistic either.
