Brisbane Chapter Meeting on the 9th August 2017 was titled “Farewell Subclass 457: Our New Reality” and hosted by KPMG.
Our May Chapter meeting focused on the significant immigration changes that were announced in March and so in this session we went beyond the technical, looking at the practical side of the matter and how the corporate community were managing their programs in this new and altered immigration environment.
The technical landscape continues to be ever-changing, more technical updates were also made from an immigration and tax perspective (the May budget released some tax changes for expatriates).
See slide deck for detail.
The panel discussion was led by Hayley Lock of KPMG and the panellists were:
- Nicelle Galeano, SIRVA for Cardno
- Nerida Gillam, Woolworth
- Rebecca Tuplin, Rio Tinto
Belinda Wright, KPMG
Discussion was around:
- What they are doing in their businesses to respond to the changes including identification of affected employees
- Implementation of strategies around timing of applications, and
- What their employees are saying and how they are planning for the future.
While the panel discussion was be the focus of the day, there were plenty of questions/observations from the audience.
Some of the items raised by the panel included:
- The requirement to educate the business - not that easy to bring people here anymore, more time consuming in terms of visa processing time, etc.
- Review of population of expats, dealing first with the critical cases impacted by the changes.
- Businesses can’t offer permanent contracts as Permanent Residency is not guaranteed.
- Now looking to change to fixed terms contract.
- As a result of the heavy impact of the changes on the workforces, companies have been proactive in providing feedback to the government and lobby groups and to their employees
- A key area of development was ensuring the Global Mobility Teams had the relevant technical knowledge to help advise the business and employers
- Age limits for permanent residency will impact the attraction of senior people.
- There have been a lot of one-on-one conversations in immigration briefings and people discussing that it is time to head home.
- Clients were already concerned about getting the right skill set into Australia now even more difficulty.
- Some tricky issues to work through with the talent acquisition team but have found ways to get to the right outcome in most cases
- Examples people who have outright refused to relocate on the basis that not worth relocating for 2 years.
- The issue of labour market testing was raised and how it was being handled by different organisations.
- To what extent grandfathering would apply.
- So much uncertainty still exists, much lobbying going o
- Impact is great in certain areas, especially about the ability to retain certain skill sets in Australia.
- Reassessment of recruit and training strategies.
Want to know more about the Brisbane Chapter Meeting or receive updates on future events? Please email Aysegul Kayahan
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