The evolution of Australia's dedicated temporary skilled migration program: a bipartisan political journey from agreement to disagreement

The growth of temporary labour migration in Australia has been remarkable. Originally introduced as a discrete program, aimed at facilitating the entry of highly skilled temporary migrant workers, the program has ballooned with a wide array of temporary visas with work rights accounting for nearly a tenth of the Australian labour force. Although many scholarly accounts have critiqued Australia's temporary labour migration program, less attention has been paid to the role of political factors in shaping Australia's approach to temporary labour migration and how these have impacted the regulatory design of visas for a dedicated purpose of work. This article addresses this gap through a granular analysis of policymaking and government-commissioned reviews of the temporary labour migration program since 1995. Using the frame of bipartisanship, it traces the journey from agreement by the major parties on temporary skilled labour migration to contestation.