Speaking a CEDA's inaugural migration conference, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles, has today announced that over 3 million visas have been finalised since 1 June.
The visa backlog, once at almost one million visas, is now down to 755,000 while 300 more staff have now been hired to process visas.
Minister Andrew Giles today said that the Government was on track for a backlog of around 600,000 by the end of the year, "delivering on our commitment to provide certainty to businesses and families".
"We have adjusted policy settings to reflect changed circumstances - something which should have started well before we were elected."
"We have automated straight forward tasks to free up staff to work on more complex visa applications - bread and butter work of a responsible government." he continued.
Minister Giles also spoke to the Government's efforts to simplify the prioritisation system, stating that he expects all skilled visas to be processed faster as a result.
"The complexity of the previous prioritisation system was adding up to 45 minutes per application for some skilled visas. I witnessed staff in triage teams sorting visas into different groups instead of making decisions."
"If we prioritise everyone, we prioritise no-one."
