The ACT Chief Minister has introduced amendments which could allow migrants with relevant work visas to receive permanent public service jobs. Photo: File.
Migrants to Australia could soon look to Canberra’s public service for permanent positions under proposed amendments to employment laws.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr presented the Public Sector Management Amendment Bill 2024 to amend the 1994 legislation which helps govern the public sector and service.
Currently the Territory’s law only allows Australian citizens or permanent residents to be appointed to ongoing positions in the public service.
“To ensure Canberrans receive vital public services, some areas of the service have historically engaged foreign visa holders … on temporary employment contracts,” Mr Barr explained.
He said recent changes to the Commonwealth’s Fair Work Act 2009 would limit the ACT’s ability to continue this practice and so the Territory’s legislation needed to change to ensure the ACT – as an employer – was still compliant with federal law.
The Fair Work Act 2009 changes prevent an employer from engaging a person on certain fixed-term employment contracts that exceed two years, and from renewing existing contracts where the consecutive periods of employment either exceed two years or would amount to two consecutive renewals.
Mr Barr said his bill would remove the requirement that a person had to be an Australian citizen or a permanent resident to be appointed to office.
“This will allow migrants who hold a legal right to work in Australia to seek appointment to an ACT public service position for as long as they hold that legal right to work in Australia,” he said.
“This [will] ensure we have the workers to deliver the all-important services that our community needs.”
The bill will be debated during a Legislative Assembly sitting week.
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