Australiaβs new Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says clearing visa backlogs is the top priority!
The newly sworn minister said they are focused on clearing the backlogs and have been in discussions regularly with departments and officials to make sure this is a priority.
Mr Giles said, βAn absolute priority for me is dealing with the neglect and grid locking of the visa system and also citizenship processing that has been the result of a long period of neglect of immigration functions of our nation under the Liberal governmentβ.
He also pointed out the waiting period for those in line to acquire Australian citizenship saying, “the fact that too many people have waited for years is just unacceptableβ.
On a query regarding skilled temporary workers to be granted permanent residency, Mr Giles said, βwhat I am concerned [about] is to ensure that we rebalance our immigration system across the board to [a] greater preference for permanent forms of migration,β he explained.
He also assured the new government was committed to working on parent visas. This issue has been a major concern for the Indian-Australian community.
