SYDNEY: The Australian government plans to work out a new visa programme this year which will make it easier for companies to attract highly skilled tech workers.
In Australia, access to talent for startups is probably the single biggest factor in helping them grow, StartupAus chief executive Alex McCauley said to Xinhua on Tuesday.
This new arrangement will mean companies will be able to move much more quickly in order to lure the best talent from around the world.
On offer for positions over 180,000 Australian dollars (139,000 US dollars) per year, the new scheme will undertake a two-month consultation period with industry before a one year trial begins on July 1.
Unlike the previous 457 visa system which blocked the pathway to permanent residency in most cases, the new process will give migrants the opportunity to become an Australian permanent resident in just three years. These kind of employees are coming from anywhere the talent is, McCauley said.
The traditional business linkages that Australia has had in the past have meant that companies look first to the US and the UK (Britain) but that has been rapidly changing over the past five to 10 years.
Now young companies here will absolutely be looking to China for really high quality business and technical talents.
While the visas are only available for trusted companies with a turnover of 4 million Australian dollars (3.1 million U.S. dollars) in areas like biomedicine and agriculture technology, the government will allow exceptions for operators in the startup space.
Typically when the Australian government is talking about trusted companies, they mean companies that have been around for a long time and have a lot of revenue with a good visa track record, McCauley said. But the problem is that obviously startups cant qualify for that sort of program.
With efforts made by the business community and advocacy groups like StartupAus, the Australian government responded to the feedback and made the decision to create a startup stream visa which will be authorised through an industry body.
Although there have been some concerns, the new scheme may cost Aussie jobs, McCauley believed the improved visa program would actually play a vital role in creating more jobs for Australian workers by helping businesses expand.
These positions that startups are looking to hire for these visa arrangements are super high skilled jobs that are in global demand, that means the Australians who have these skills will almost certainly already have jobs either here or elsewhere.
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