A new visa will allow up to 3000 people from the Pacific region to migrate to Australia as permanent residents each year, under a scheme modelled on a New Zealand immigration program.
The Pacific Engagement Visa has a two-step application process, under which applicants must first register in a ballot and pay a fee of $25.
“In the second stage, applicants selected by the ballot will be able to then apply for the visa,” the government said in a statement. Applicants will need to have a formal job offer with an employer in Australia, be aged between between 18 and 45 years, and satisfy basic English language and health and character requirements, it said.
“Applicants can include their partners and dependent children in their application,” the statement said. The government aims to have the new visa up and running by July.
“The Pacific Engagement Visa will be open to independent Pacific island countries whose nationals are not entitled to New Zealand citizenship and to Timor-Leste,” the government said.
“This could include [people from]: the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor- Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.”
Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy told the ABC the visa was about creating a path for permanent migration, rather than boosting numbers of temporary workers.
“This is allocating 3,000 spots to Pacific families each year to make a new life in Australia, to deepen the Pacific diaspora in Australia and deepen our people to people links,” he said.
“Those people have to have jobs in this country and they can bring their families. It is a great way of deepening our strong relationships with the region.”
Visa part of measures to counter China
The bills to bring the new visa scheme about will reportedly be introduced to parliament on Thursday.
Last year, the visa scheme was announced in April as part of the thenopposition’s wider commitment to increasing aid to the Pacific to counter China’s rising influence in the region.
At the time it was announced, Stephen Howes from the Australian National University said the proposal was “unique” and “very significant”.
“So far, all the labour mobility schemes for the Pacific have been temporary … but this is different in that it allows Pacific Islanders to move to Australia with their families and stay here,” he said.
Professor Howes said the policy seemed aimed at building up Australia’s Pacific diaspora, which remains very small.
“While 3,000 might not sound like a lot, those numbers will accumulate — I think you could quickly see this become more important than the temporary schemes.”
In a statement the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the ABC that boosting permanent migration to Australia was an essential part of the government’s plan to “build a stronger Pacific family”.
“The Pacific Engagement Visa will grow Australia’s Pacific diaspora, build on our strong peopleto-people links, and encourage greater cultural, business, and educational exchange”, the statement said. According to DFAT, consultations are ongoing with regional partners to determine proposed country allocations and participation.
The new visa overhauls Australia’s standing Pacific labour mobility schemes, and effectively abolishes the Nationals’ plan for a standalone agriculture visa by wrapping it into existing Pacific programs.
Pacific leaders support new visa
Allan Bird, the governor of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea and a member of government, said it was a good way to solve economic issues in the region.
“I think it’s about time, because all the Pacific Island countries share a bond with Australia,” he told the ABC.
“There are many jobs that Australian citizens do not want to do, and I think it would be to the advantage of both Australia and South Pacific that those jobs come to the Pacific.”
He said allowing Pacific Island citizens to take their families and live in Australia would help offer people on the visas a different perspective.
“They get to experience the values and culture of Australia and pick up the work ethic as well, which I think is important,” he said.
“We need citizens who have a different view of the world.”
Solomon Islands Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs Colin Beck backed the government’s new visa scheme.
“Any of these economic opportunities, including labour, mobility and longterm stay — that is something that is very much welcomed by Solomon Islands,” Mr Beck told the ABC.
“This is something that we have been continually working on with the Australian government.”
Vanuatu Finance Minister John SalongI said he welcomes the change that is happening in Australia, but wants to see the measure go further to allow reciprocal visa-free entry for residents of Vanuatu into Australia.
“We already have good exchanges between workers in Vanuatu and approved employees in Australia,” he said.
“Once the government provides that legislative environment, people will make the best choices that they will for their own selves.”
For Vanuatu’s disaster-prone islands, Mr SalongI said restriction free entry to Australia for those who fit the appropriate criteria would provide muchneeded opportunity for those who need to leave their homes.
“Not only to move into other islands in Vanuatu, but they can also move to another place where they might have better income opportunities for themselves, and maybe better opportunities for their children in terms of access to education, access to future work, and professional upbringing,” he said.
- Toby Mann is a digital journalist with the ABC’s Asia Pacific Newsroom. Evan Wasuka is a reporter for ABC Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program, covering news and current affairs in the Pacific. The views expressed in this article belong to the authors and do not reflect the views of this newspaper.
