As a would be
imagrant, I'm qualified to speak on this.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has been tightening the rules up over the past few years. The changes that I'm aware of are:
- September 2007 - Minimal English standards introduced.
- September 2009 - Priority processing put in place. Before this applicants were processed on a first-come first-served basis. After this, anyone who wasn't on the Critical Skills List (medical occupations, IT, engineering, accountants) would be looking at a prolonged wait for a visa grant.
- February 2010 - Removal of the 15 extra points for an occupation in demand. This has made independent visas far more difficult to obtain, forcing migrants into a state or employer sponsored visa.
- July 2010 - State Migration Programmes to match skills in demand at a state level to incoming migrants. Applicants on these will have a processing priority.
- Late 2010 - A new points test for migrants will be introduced that pays attention to factors such as degrees.
With the exception of the priority scheme, none of the changes are retrospective.
DIAC are looking to terminate remaining applications made before September 2007, as many of these have poor English language skills or are considered suspicious. There is an attempt to introduce legislation in parliament to allow this to happen, and it's rather controversial amongst would be migrants.
I don't know how much has changed since the ascension of Gillard, but she's talking of two speed migration. Parts of the country, such as Sydney, where there aren't desperate skills shortages are likely to see fewer arrivals, whereas those like Western Australia that need workers are likely to see more.
Given the detail in her initial policy statements, my suspicion is that it's either a rebranding of what DIAC were working towards in the past, or they needed Rudd (and the idea of a Big Australia) out of the way before it could be implemented.
As far as I can tell, the Liberals favour lower net rates of immigration, and I suspect that they'd probably end up with something approaching the new regime's approach. There has been talk of balancing numbers against infrastructure improvements.
The Greens want to scrap the English language requirements (because it's discriminatory, and doesn't support a multicultural society), and rebalance migration towards family reunion and humanitarian goals.
The new Labor policy sounds sensible, and I don't know enough about what the Liberals are proposing to comment. The Greens strike me as living in a bit of a dream world, and their plans would be economically damaging.