AHISA SUBMISSION

Australian Government Department of Home Affairs

Review of Australia’s Migration System

9 December 2022

The independent sector relies on overseas recruitment to fill positions that support diversity in education provision, including curriculum and co-curriculum specialisms, year level offerings and residential schooling options, as well as to help meet teacher shortages commonly experienced in all school sectors. Specialist staff shortages in the independent sector, however, are not apparent in data based on broad occupational categories and aggregated at a jurisdictional or national level.

AHISA advocates that, to enable independent schools to continue to contribute to the diversity of educational provision in Australia and to give all individual schools and school systems maximum flexibility in meeting their staffing needs, application of broad-brush skills shortage criteria should be relaxed for schools-related occupations and all school-sector related occupations eligible for the Temporary Skill Shortage visa program (subclass 482) should be included on the Medium to Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL).

Review of Australia’s Migration System – Full Submission