David Gonski AC told an inquiry into social cohesion his 24-member Antisemitism Education Taskforce was considering a proposal to uplift migrant skill recognitions and address community tensions.
Many skilled migrants were underemployed in Australia lacking recognition for previous qualifications, he said on Tuesday afternoon.
"This, (a member) put to us, creates some tension and concern both within them and the people that they live with, and so on," he said.
"He felt that we could find a twofold solution: a solution that allowed us to have more skilled workers, and ... that would take away some of the aggravation that comes for these people."
Mr Gonski said "there was merit" in considering the proposal but the task force has not reached a final decision.
He stressed he did not suggest further migration, but broader permissions for migrants to practice in their fields.
"Even if, for a while, you have somebody with you or you have to have your work checked," he said.
Mr Gonski was appointed to lead the anti-Semitism education task force in December 2025.
He previously filed the Gonski report on Australian education funding.
Mr Gonski also widened his recommendations on addressing anti-Semitism in education at the Royal Commission into anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion.
"We are hopeful that (the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) will now look more broadly at not just Holocaust studies, but also more generally the contribution of the Jews and indeed the Jewish faith," he said.
"There's a lot of contribution by Jews to Australia, to the history of Australia."
Earlier on Tuesday, Orthodox Rabbi Zalman Kastel suggested educators address specific prejudices in youth's education.
"Telling people a general message of don't be racist, doesn't cut it," he said.
Two university academics then reported students and staff have become afraid to address difficult topics.
Monash University lecturers Farid Zaid and Daniel Heller said many undergraduate students struggled to hear the different views of classmates.
"We both saw conversations in the classroom play out along really rigid lines," Dr Zaid said.
"I was deeply surprised by my students' inability to distinguish discomfort in the classroom ... and distressed."
A majority of students and academics adopted a position of self-censorship over fears about social media censure or official complaints, they said.
Others tended to what the pair termed "perform certainty".
"We know what's virtuous, what's moral, what's right; and anyone who disagrees is, in one way or another, morally reprehensible," Dr Heller said.
The pair run workshops under the Brave Conversations Project, aiming to teach students and teachers how to stay in the room when things become difficult.
The final hearing block is examining social cohesion in Australia.
The commission held eight previous hearing blocks and has received more than 20,000 submissions.
12°C