Visa Simplification: Transforming Australia’s Visa System – Response to the Policy Consultation Paper

This submission responds to the Australian Government’s policy consultation paper on simplifying and transforming Australia’s visa system, addressing which factors should guide simplification and how the visa system can keep Australia attractive to highly skilled temporary and permanent residents. Research Australia maintains that health and medical research is part of a global knowledge economy that depends on international collaboration and the mobility of researchers. It cites Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data showing that institutions with more international collaboration produce higher-impact research, that Australia ranked 23rd of 40 nations for international co-authorship in 2012, and that 48.3% of Australian resident doctorate holders in 2011 were foreign born. Bilateral flows of scientific authors between 1996 and 2013 gave Australia a net gain of a little under 3,000 researchers from the United States and Great Britain. The submission links the review to Innovation and Science Australia’s 2030 Plan. It recommends that the visa system remain open temporary and permanent migration of researchers; cover visiting researchers without an Australian employer sponsor, such as users of national research facilities, with faster processing; presume entry for applicants holding a PhD from a reputable institution, subject to normal checks; develop criteria to admit people with commercialisation expertise, which Australia lacks; and remove age limits for PhD holders and commercialisation experts, particularly sponsored or temporary applicants.