Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil concedes Australia's immigration system is broken, as the federal government calls an inquiry in a bid to root out infiltration of the visa process by criminal syndicates.
Reports in the Nine newspapers have alleged the visa system is being used to facilitate sex slavery and human trafficking.
That included a man who served jail time in the UK for his role in an illegal sex ring before allegedly setting up a similar operation in Australia on a student visa.
Ms O'Neil said the reports have uncovered "grotesque" issues in the immigration system.
"It's absolutely clear to me that there are systemic abuses of the system occurring at the moment," she told told the ABC's RN Breakfast.
"We've got to make sure, number one, that we address the issues around criminality that are being alleged here by the media at the moment."
Ms O'Neil said the Nine reports posed questions for former home affairs minister, and now-opposition leader, Peter Dutton.
"We had Peter Dutton talking tough on borders for nine years, effectively, and yet at the same time presiding over a system that was allowing these things to happen."
Nationals leader David Littleproud said criminals needed to be weeded out.
"There's always people that are trying to do the wrong thing, under any government," he said.
"How many inquiries and how many more consultations do this mob want to do?"
Workforce problems to be examined
Former bureaucrat Martin Parkinson, labour migration legal expert Joanna Howe and former Skilled Migration Ministerial Advisory Council member John Azarias will carry out the review.
It was first flagged at the Jobs and Skills Summit in September.
While the review is designed to clean up the immigration system, it will also look to harness the opportunities skilled migration can provide to address worker shortages.
"This is a really important piece of the puzzle, we've got some of the best and brightest people around the world who want to come here and make Australia their homes," Ms O'Neil said.
The government hopes migration could be used to boost workforces in the care sector, which is becoming increasingly strained.
"The migration reform is about looking at big economic transformations the country needs to make because we want to be a high skill, high wage economy, and the migration system can help us deliver that," Ms O'Neil said.
Ms O'Neil said the skilled occupation list isn't working on an "evidence-based process", and wouldn't rule out scrapping it.
