Clearing the “massive” backlog of skilled migrants waiting to enter Australia will be key to solving the crisis in regional health staffing, Victoria’s premier says.

Daniel Andrews raised Australia’s sluggish skilled migration as one of the factors ailing Victoria’s health system after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He used Anthony Albanese’s first National Cabinet meeting as prime minister on 17 June to push for extra resources to process the “tens of thousands” of visa applicants, a request the Federal Government agreed to.

“At my urging, he’s (Anthony Albanese) put … extra staff on to move through that backlog,” Mr Andrews told a Rural Press Club lunch at Victoria’s State Library on Tuesday.