Before COVID, Australia was one of the world’s most open countries for migration. But COVID-19 travel restrictions have brought migration to a standstill.

In this joint State Library Victoria/Grattan Institute webinar, our panel of experts will consider how Australia’s permanent skilled migration program – which selects migrants for their long-term economic potential – should change when borders eventually reopen.



What should Australia look for when granting permanent residency to skilled migrants? Should we continue to use permanent skilled migration to try to make up for skills shortages? And has the recent shift in the intake towards business investment and Global Talent visas – which now account for two in five permanent visas issued – been a mistake?

Please join this online discussion on how the Federal Government can improve Australia’s permanent skilled migration policies for the benefit of all Australians. And please join in by submitting your questions for the panel.

Event partners

Panel


Gabriela D’Souza

Speaker

Gabriela D’Souza is Senior Economist at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), where she predominantly conducts research on migration policy in Australia. She has worked at some of Australia’s most well-known and respected public policy think tanks and economics research centres. Gabriela has conducted research on education, migration, multidimensional disadvantage, and area-based measures of exclusion. She has a master’s degree in economics from Monash University and is an affiliate of Monash University’s Department of Business Statistics and Econometrics.

Henry Sherrell

Speaker

Henry Sherrell is Migration Policy Deputy Program Director at the Grattan Institute. Before joining Grattan, he worked as an independent researcher focusing on Australian and international migration policy. Henry has worked for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Migration Council Australia, a federal MP, the Federal Parliamentary Library, and the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University. He holds a Masters of Public Policy from the Crawford School at ANU and a Bachelor of Arts from ANU.

Danielle Wood

Moderator

Danielle Wood is the CEO of Grattan Institute and also leads Grattan’s Budgets and Government Program. She has published extensively on economic reform priorities, budgets, tax reform, generational inequality, and reforming political institutions. Danielle previously worked at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, NERA Economic Consulting, and the Productivity Commission. Danielle is the former President of the Economic Society of Australia and was the co-founder and first Chair of the Women in Economics Network. She is a member of the Parliamentary Budget Office Expert Advisory Committee, the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Committee, the Commonwealth Bank CEO Advisory Council, and the PWC Future of Work Committee.