Exclusive: Australia will launch a green card-style lottery to attract 3000 workers from the Pacific region to the country every year
Australia will launch a lottery to bring 3000 foreign workers into the country every year under a new law to be proposed that adapts the “green card” system used in the United States to give the winners a pathway to citizenship.
The Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, says the draft law will be introduced to federal parliament on Thursday with a vow to build up communities in Australia with strong ties to the region. The scheme is meant to start in July and is being discussed with regional leaders ahead of the Pacific Island Forum next week, where Foreign Minister Penny Wong will represent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a time of heightened sensitivity about China’s influence in the region.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau is welcomed to Parliament House in Canberra by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday.As well as East Timor , the new scheme will be open to applicants from Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
“We’ve modelled it on successful schemes operating in the United States with the green card, and New Zealand has a couple of schemes, so importantly, it will be a random selection to make it as fair as possible,” Conroy said.
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