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Government overhauls skilled migration program

The Federal Government has announced a major overhaul of the skilled migration program aimed at favouring workers with high-value skills at the expense of the backdoor migration of occupations such as cooks and hairdressers. The changes include a new list of skills in demand, a review of the points test, a limit on the number of workers from one occupation, State and Territory priority lists, and revoking the pre-September 2007 visa applications of some 20,000 overseas workers.