Employer sponsorship goes public: Legal and practical consequences of the new register

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Further moves towards more transparency in Australia’s migration program continue with the Migration Amendment (Combatting Migrant Exploitation) Act 2026 (Cth), which received assent late last week.

While it is a simple piece of legislation that only adds one section to the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), it will have important ramifications for sponsored workers, business sponsors and the public in general.

It adds the ability, but not the obligation, to publish certain information on the Department of Home Affairs’ website of approved work sponsors. Under regulation 2.58 of the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth), approved work sponsors can be either: standard business sponsors, temporary activities sponsors, or entities subject to a work agreement, otherwise known as a labour agreement.

It is not yet known whether all types of approved work sponsorships will be published, but it is likely to start with standard business sponsors. An approved and valid standard business sponsor is required, along with associated nomination applications for subclass 482 - Skills in Demand visas and subclass 494 – Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visas.

The changes allow the publication of certain information relating to approved work sponsors, including:

  • the sponsor’s name,

  • the sponsor’s Australian Business Number (‘ABN’),

  • the kind of sponsorship approved,

  • the postcode associated with the sponsor's ABN, if any,

  • the number of nominations made by the sponsor, and

  • the occupations the sponsor has nominated.

Further regulations will prescribe the details of information to be published. Personal identifier information, which is effectively biometrics, cannot be published, however, as sole-traders can be approved work sponsors, their names can be published.

The register will no doubt assist overseas workers in two ways, as emphasised in the explanatory memorandum. The first is to determine the legitimacy of a sponsor. The second is assisting them in finding a sponsor. This is notable if occupations are published and if the register can be filtered by occupation.

This register will have far more details than current public registers. Currently, there are registers for:

The approved work sponsor register is likely to commence within 6 months.

Business owners and human resources employees may experience an uptick in unsolicited inquiries for employment, which may or may not be wanted.