Western Australia’s South West region will enter a five-year Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) with the Commonwealth. This will allow employers to hire skilled workers under the Temporary Skill Shortage Visa labour agreement stream and may give opportunities for the workers to get permanent residency in Australia.

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs Alex Hawke said that the new DAMA will help expedite growth in Dardanup and South West Western Australia.

Federal Member for Forrest Nola Marino who has been working on this project for almost three years stated that this new migration agreement will fill the persisting critical employment gaps in South West’s key industries.

“Our first priority is always to fill jobs with Australians, but the immigration system can play an important role in helping to address regional skills gaps… This agreement provides a limited capacity to access more overseas workers than the standard skilled migration program, allowing concessions or variations specific to the South West labour market,” she said.

Dardanup shire president Mick Bennett welcomes the Federal Government’s support in the new DAMA which will encourage more skilled migrants to come and work in regional Western Australia.

The DAMA will only allow 200 people to be brought in per year. Local businesses can apply individually to access the South West DAMA from 4 January 2022. These are the 12 local governments areas covered by the agreement:

We have contacted the Shire of Dardanup to request a copy of the approved occupation list and available concessions and will release these as soon as they are available.

If you are interested in accessing the DAMA, please contact Milestone Migration for us to take you through the process and requirements.

Visit https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-inaustralia/regional-migration/dama for more information on this announcement.