National planned to count migrants as "skilled" only if the job they were coming to paid more than about $49,000 a year, but the plan was opposed by employers who said their businesses would be put at risk by the blocking of foreign workers. Immigrants only needed to be paid over $41,859 a year – resulting in about 6000 more workers being able to stay in the country longer. Those earning less would be considered low-skilled and can stay in the country for a maximum of three years, after which a stand-down period applies before they can apply to come back. National planned to introduce legislation in 2018 that would raise the residency requirements for superannuation from 10 to 20 years.
