Australian immigration specialists have argued for a new form of visa designed to strengthen defence efforts.
Cherie Wright and Penny Harris wrote in The Strategist that Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom should create a visa dedicated to moving skilled defence professionals between the three members of the nascent AUKUS military alliance—currently co-operating on submarine warfare technologies.
It is estimated that at present Australia has a 110,000-strong personnel shortfall in key trades such as engineering, with the use of higher education in visa applications too lacking in focus to be relevant. Parallel criticisms apply to existing immigration pathways in the U.S. and UK.
The authors propose to fix this by deploying a tri-national visa category with:
• 30-day priority processing;
• mutual recognition of security clearances;
• common eligibility criteria for trades as well as professions, such as engineers;
• streamlined customs arrangements
The authors reframe labour shortages as a strategic-security risk, rather than a purely economic one. If translated into policy, the move would echo the ongoing shift towards sovereign states acting in their national interest, at the expense of the institutions of the ‘international community.’
Yet it’s not all plain sailing in the Indo-Pacific. Last summer saw Washington start to review the submarine provision elements of the deal, aiming to ensure value for money—and to square military co-operation with an ‘America first’ approach to foreign policy.
