Subject: Skilled migration and Global Talent Independent program

ROSS GREENWOOD: One of the issues that is highly controversial in Australia, no doubt, is about the level of immigration we have coming to this country. Now, I've got different views to many of you, because I believe that immigration is one of the keys to solve the problems of an ageing population, but I also believe that it is important that we attract the right people to come to Australia. By that I mean young, intelligent, tax-payers. That's what you want. So you want people who can not only come here with skills, but develop those skills, have kids, have those kids develop skills, and be taxpayers for the very long term.

Now if you consider the pressure on our nursing homes - which has prompted a royal commission there - the pressure on our health system, and again, we know about the real pressures, you can feel that through your private health insurance premiums. The pressure then, in terms of the pension schemes. And think about the taxes we pay to make certain that ageing Australians can have the right level of pension support from the government, from you. So then you come down to the annual immigration cap. Right now 160,000 people is the immigration cap. But the government today has decided that it will offer permanent residency for 5000 people each year, but they will target high income earners with expertise in one of seven fields. So let's get on the Immigration Minister David Coleman who is on the line right now. David, many thanks for your time.

DAVID COLEMAN: No worries, good to be with you Ross.

ROSS GREENWOOD: Okay. So this is a pretty tough one, because you've now got to sell to people that bringing in an extra 5000 people, which again puts extra pressure - everybody would say - on infrastructure, on a whole range of different things. That that 5000 people is going to be good for the nation as a whole. How do you basically argue that the people will tell you: we should be bringing no more migrants into the country?

DAVID COLEMAN: Well Ross, I think the first point is we've reduced the migration intake in recent years. So last year was the lowest permanent in migration intake for 10 years. This year the cap is a little less than last year. This year's total permanent intake will be down somewhat again. So this isn't extra people on top of the cap, this is basically saying within that cap, we want to focus very intently on getting the very best and brightest people to Australia, because they're the ones that come up with ideas that lead to companies expanding, which leads to more Australians being employed. Particularly in these very high growth industries like technology, that we know over the next five, 10, 20 years, are going to be critical to the growth of Australia and the creation of more high wage, higher productivity jobs in Australia. So we want to make sure that within our program, we're really focusing on those very top-end skilled migrants. And that's what this is all about.

ROSS GREENWOOD: Okay, so what are the seven industry sectors that you're targeting here? Just explain to people where you want these best and brightest from around the world to come from.

DAVID COLEMAN: Sure. So there is agriculture technology, Fintech, medical technology, cyber security. We've also got data science and ICT, and energy and mining technology, and also importantly space and advanced manufacturing, where the PM's made some strong statements about the importance of Australia being part of that space industry in the future. So heavy technology emphasis Ross, but you'll see there are some sectors there where Australia's already got a good position, like medical technology. We've got companies like Cochlear and others that are world leaders, and we want to help create the next world leaders.

You know, agriculture, we're known the world over for having great agriculture, and we want to be known the world over for great technology in agriculture as well. And then an area like cyber security, which unfortunately is going to continue to grow, because unfortunately we know that people continue to attack IT systems. By having a strong cyber security industry we know we're positioned to grow in that very important area as well.

So it's basically about getting highly skilled people in high growth industries, because we know that those industries will be so important to our future.

ROSS GREENWOOD: Okay, so this is- is this being demand led from industry here in Australia, saying we can't find enough of these people, and what we want is for you to open up visas for these people with these skills so that we can fill them and we can grow faster? Or is it one of those things that's an ambition of government to bring these people in and hope that they either find a business or find a job where they can use those skills properly?

DAVID COLEMAN: Well, I think Ross we all want Australians to fill jobs wherever possible, and of course the vast majority of jobs in the Australian economy are filled by Australians. This is about saying: we know that in these areas there is massive growth today and even more growth to come in the years ahead. The number of places here we're talking about, you know, 5000, is a small subset of the total growth in these industries, which is huge.

We know that when you get those really top people in, that they're the ones that come up with the ideas that help employ more Australians. I have an example of that from my career before I was in politics, where I was chairman of NineMSN - joint venture between Nine and Microsoft. We would often get Microsoft executives come over from the US, work in that business, and then they would say: hey, why don't you guys develop this product or add this service, or whatever it was. Then invariably to build out that service, we would employ more Australia to grow the business.

So when it's these really top level, highly skilled migrants, that's where the value is greatest. That was the great insight that John Howard had 20 years ago, where he said that we need to focus as much of our program on skills as possible. This is about, I guess, taking the focus on skills to the next level and having this program for the very best and brightest.

ROSS GREENWOOD: And it really is important to note that this was launched, this initiative today, alongside the co-founder of Atlassian, Scott Farquhar; the chief executive of Cochlear, Dig Howitt; and also the quantum physicist Michelle Simmons who was the 2018 Australia of the Year. If we can produce three more just like that out of this scheme, then certainly that 5000 intake as part of that 160,000 cap per annum, would be very much well paid for.

Our Immigration Minister is David Coleman, and David, I appreciate your time on the program this evening.

DAVID COLEMAN: Thanks very much, Ross.