Politicians, unions, business and community leaders have reconvened in the nation's capital for day two of thejobs and skills summit.
Here's a quick wrap of the developments and key focuses of day two where skilled migration is expected to dominate discussion.
Skilled migration
The federal government has confirmed Australia's permanent migration cap will be lifted by 35,000 for 2022/23, in an attempt to address economy wide skills shortages.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil, speaking to the summit, announced the cap would increase to 195,000 this financial year.
Based on projections, this could mean thousands more nurses settling in the country this year, thousands more engineers, she said.
For the first time in our history, Australia is not the destination of choice for many of our skilled migrants.
Those best and brightest minds, who are on the move around the world, they are looking to live in countries like Canada, Germany and UK and those countries are rolling out a red carpet to welcome them in.
Speaking before the summit, she said there was too much of a focus on temporary migration.
One of the big problems is that we've created one where it is very easy to come as a temporary worker probably in a pretty low-skilled job but virtually impossible to come here permanently as a high-skilled worker.
We need to think about migration as a driver of productivity and great jobs. The system in place today doesn't help us do that.
Business and unions had reached a broad consensuson the cap, suggesting a 40,000boost to 200,000 places a year.
Australia's permanent migration program rose to about 190,000 per year in the mid-2010s before it was slashed to the current cap of 160,000 in 2019-20.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has argued migration is part of the answer while the Australian Council of Trade Unions' support has been contingent on 17 conditions, including greater efforts to train local workers.
Ms O'Neil said anincrease in migration would have to be coupled with a boost to housing.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said training Australians was the first priority but there was a role for migration.
There is a role there for lifting the cap cautiously but not in isolation and not as a substitute for some of the other things we have to do, he said.
The government has announced it willreview Australia's immigration system.
Three eminent Australians will oversee the process with further announcements in coming weeks.
Disability workforce
Boosting workforce participation will form the second part of today's session with a particular focus on removing barriers to employment for first nations people and people living with disability.
Ms O'Neil said there was an untapped workforce.
Having this skills shortage and low unemployment rate is an amazing opportunity to provide employment to people who are often marginalised in the workforce, people with disability and first nations people, she said.
We can do something about that now but even doing all those things we are suffering greatly because of a skills shortage and we need to address that.
Australian of the Year and disability advocate Dylan Alcott says employing people living with disability makes business sense.(ABC News: Luke Stephenson)
Australian of the year and disability advocate Dylan Alcott told the summit there was no reason to overlook people with a disability.
We've had this opportunity before and we've dropped the ball, he said.
People with disability are 90 per cent more likely to be equal to or more productive than able-bodied people.
We have higher retention rates and lower absenteeism and yet the unemployment is more than double, almost triple that of able bodied people.
Visa processing
The Albanese government will invest $36.1 million in visa processing to speed up the approvals process.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said processing times have begun to improve since the government took office.
We will invest $36.1 million in visa processing to surge staff capacity by 500 over the next nine months, he said.
The median number of days it takes for a person coming to Australia on a temporary skilled visa is down from 53 in May to 42 in July.
The median time taken to approve new businesses for sponsorship has halved from 37 days to 18.
In May students outside of Australia had to wait an average of 40 days for their visa, now the figure is down to 31 and over half of working holiday visas are now finalised in less than one day.
Working pensioners
Aged pensioners who want to work will be able to earn more this financial year before having their pension reduced.
The government announced a one-off $4,000 up-frontincome bank credit, meaningpensioners will be able to earn an extra $4,000 on top of the current $480 capbefore their payment is scaled back.
There had been growing calls, includingfromOpposition LeaderPeter Dutton, for the government to change the rules as a way to help fill current job vacancies.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the changes would be legislated in coming weeks.
This will apply for the current financial year,he said.
Some older Australians stay in the workforce longer because they have to and some because they want to.
We can all do better at valuing older Australians for their wisdom, experience and the contribution they make.
