The Albanese government will boost the permanent skilled migration cap to 195,000 places for this financial year to help fill pressing labour shortages.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil made the announcement at the final day of the jobs and skills summit on Friday.
The permanent skilled migration cap is currently 160,000 and will be boosted by 35,000 places in 2022/23.
Lifting the annual cap to plug skills gaps amid severe staff shortages in multiple sectors has been a key point of discussion in the lead-up to the summit.
Ms O'Neil said the change could mean thousands more nurses and engineers settling in the country.
"I note (Nationals leader) David Littleproud is here. David, this will mean 34,000 places in the regions for this year, 9000 more than had been previously announced," she said.
Ms O'Neil said the measures would include a lift to state- and territory-sponsored visas from 11,000 last year to 31,000.
"There is nothing in this room with universal support but an area where almost everyone agrees is that we need to lift the permanent migration numbers for this year," she said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the lift was needed but he was uncertain about the government's ability to deliver its promise.
"We just need to see what they actually deliver because Labor's great at making grand announcements but quite often in two or three or six months' time you'll find they haven't lived up to what they have announced," he told reporters.
He also said the government would need to explain how it planned to house extra migrants.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said housing shortages would be a key consideration in any decision to lift the migration gap.
"We think that there is a case to responsibly and cautiously lift the skilled migration cap but not in isolation from housing and not as a substitution for training or getting more people participating in the workforce," he said.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles also announced funding to clear visa backlogs and shorten wait times.
The $36.1 million will go mostly towards more visa processing staff.
The government made some other commitments for immediate action, including allowing university graduates to work in Australia for longer.
Further work will be done on addressing migrant exploitation.
This would include an investigation of industry sponsorship of visa workers, which was recommended by Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine as an alternative to employer sponsorships to give visa workers more freedom to move between employers in a particular industry,
The government also committed to an investigation into lifting the pay floor for temporary skilled visas.
Speaking at the summit, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Annie Butler said it needed to be boosted to $90,000 a year to encourage workers into care industries, especially aged care.
"Part of the problem we have seen in aged care is because of the lack of numbers of skilled staff. Those people deserve to be rewarded properly."
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar called for a more modest lift to $60,000 from the $53,900 minimum level that exists at the moment, and said further analysis was needed to determine where the caps should be set.
"Let's try and work to a consensus about where it should be set so as to take into account some of those considerations in terms of flexibility, ensuring we're not knocking out areas of genuine skills need and taking into account regional interests as well."
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's Ogy Simic said asylum seekers on bridging visas could help ease skills shortages but were denied the right to work.
"If the Albanese government wants to address the issues being discussed at the jobs and skills summit right now, his government could provide the right to work, study and rebuild to thousands of people seeking asylum in Australia," Mr Simic said.
