In a renewed push to cut red tape and improve Australia’s competitiveness in attracting global talent, a new visa has been launched for specialist short term expat workers.
The new visa will streamline the current often laborious and complicated process in obtaining a short term visa to work down under.
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Brendan O'Connor said, "The Gillard Government is determined to cut red tape and make it easier for visitors to understand which visa they need for a short stay visit or work visa.
"There will be no change to current visa eligibility for tourism, business visitor activities, sponsored family visits, and medical treatment, and care has been taken to ensure there is no impact on program integrity settings.
"This new visa is for people who need to come to Australia for highly specialised non-ongoing work on a short-term basis
"It is not related to the 457 program for temporary skilled visas and the Government remains committed to strengthening the safeguards to ensure the 457 program is not being exploited by unscrupulous employers to the disadvantage of local workers."
"The finalised settings took into account stakeholder and public responses to the 2011 Making Visitor Visas Simpler discussion paper which outlined the proposed visitor visa framework," Assistant Treasurer and Minister Assisting on Deregulation David Bradbury said.