Australia’s not-so-skilled Skilled Migration Program
New IPA analysis of government permanent visa data has cast doubt on the prevailing narrative that Australia’s migration program is predominantly skills-based and is delivering significant economic benefits by filling job vacancies.
The research shows most applicants granted ‘skilled’ permanent visas are people accompanying genuinely skilled migrants, a form of chain migration.
- In 2024-25, the Department of Home Affairs approved 185,001 permanent migration visas. While 132,148 were categorised as skilled visas (71 per cent of total), only 60,474 (33 per cent of total) satisfied Home Affairs’ skills requirements. The remainder of the skilled category was made up of ‘secondary applicants’ who are dependents of skilled migrants (typically their spouses and children).
- The other main category of permanent visa approvals – family – accounted for 52,000 approvals in 2024-25. However, if the family component of the skilled category was added, the family total was actually 124,371, or 67 per cent of all permanent visa approvals.
- Over the five years to June 2025, visas approved for family and other dependents totalled 594,470, of which 307,575 were chain migrants under the skilled category.
Chart: Permanent visa approvals by category
The analysis is reinforced by recent data that indicates Australia’s skilled migration program is not filling worker shortages: despite an unprecedented net migration intake of 1.60 million people between 2022 and 2025, job vacancies remain at 329,500, approximately 45 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.
Table: Composition of Australia’s Migration Program in 2024-25
The full research note, Australia’s not-so-skilled Skilled Migration Program, is available at the IPA website here.
What is making educational attainment harder to achieve?
Australian governments should immediately scrap school curriculum priorities that are leading to psychological disorders in school children, known as ‘climate anxiety’.
This is one of the recommendations from an IPA submission to an inquiry into improving educational attainment in schools.
The analysis highlights that the factors affecting educational attainment are multifaceted.
- Classroom time is being wasted on overly ideological content as required by the National Curriculum.
- Educational outcomes are in part driven by teachers, who are being failed by universities which provide degrees that disproportionately focus on radical teaching and social theories.
- Educational attainment gaps between boys and girls will persist while government initiatives continue to problematise masculinity and boyhood under the label of ‘Respectful Relationships’.
The IPA reiterates the urgent need to make significant changes to the way children in Australia are being taught, starting with the removal of the cross-curriculum priorities that imposes ideological content in every subject. Government should also cease funding programs that demonise young men, and reform teacher training.
The full submission to the House Standing Committee on Education is available at the IPA website here.
South Australia wind drought exposed energy weakness
A recent wind drought in South Australia exposed the vulnerability of its electricity grid, where the rapid implementation of intermittent, weather dependent alternative energy sources has been plagued by increased supply and price volatility.
IPA analysis of Open Electricity data between 18 June and 22 June revealed:
- Alternative energy’s share of the South Australian grid fell to less than 1 per cent during a recent wind drought.
- SA’s grid generation relied heavily on gas to produce more than 99 per cent of its electricity supply when wind and solar did not perform.
- The decommissioning of SA’s last baseload (coal-fired) power station has made the state reliant on gas as well as its inter-connection to Victoria which provides reliable brown-coal-based electricity supply.
Chart: SA’s estimated half-hourly electricity grid generation (MWh)
The full analysis is available at the IPA website here.
