what’s news in immigration?

Federal Government announces super changes

6 May 2008 Employers will have the opportunity to pay the superannuation to a super fund or to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The ATO and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship will use data matching to identify temporary residents superannuation held by super funds and request that it be transferred. Temporary residents are currently able to claim their superannuation by applying for a departing Australia superannuation payment from their fund, outlined in a discussion paper on the Federal Treasury website.   more...

Faster processing speed for 457 Australian Work Visas for skilled migrants

6 May 2008 In order to curb the country's current skills shortage crisis, Australia’s government has announced the Immigration and Citizenship Department’s plan to drastically speed up the processing time of 457 Work Visas, also known as the Skilled Migrant Visas. In addition to that, employers who regularly hire overseas labour and classified as “low-risk” (i.e. firms with a good track record) will be able to have their applications fast-tracked under an accreditation system. This means that big businesses will be able to speed up the 457 Australian Work Visa process so that they can import foreign workers.   more...

Govt to tighten 457 work visa scheme

6 May 2008 Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, has reaffirmed Labor's commitment to a temporary workers visa scheme despite complaints of exploitation. Immigration analyst, Bob Kinnaird, says “nobody knows the real extent of exploitation under the current 457 visa, as there is little checking on what people are being paid”. more...

New visa to attract superyachts to Australia

30 April 2008 “A new tailored visa for the crews of superyachts will provide a boost to the tourism industry”, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said today. The new superyacht visa fulfilled a Rudd Government election commitment to create a special visa class to support the growing superyacht industry and assist tourism in areas like Queensland's Great Barrier Reef region.   more...

Illegal workers caught in Riverina operation 

8 May 2008 12 illegal foreign workers will be deported after being nabbed in the NSW Riverina by immigration officials who believe they also found evidence of exploitation by employers and migration agent fraud. Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator, Chris Evans, said “the Rudd Government takes a zero tolerance approach towards illegal workers and similarly, there are no excuses for employers who engage workers without valid visas”.   more...

Government to implement industry report on skilled migration

5 May 2008 Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Senator, Chris Evans, said “they have begun work to implement 14 of the 16 recommendations designed to make the temporary skilled migration (457 visa) program scheme more effective and responsive to industry needs”. The Rudd Government has also increased the permanent skilled migration program by 6000 places for 2007-08, bringing to 108 500 the total number of visas granted under the skilled migration program this financial year. more...

Skills essential for migrant plan win

30 April 2008 A feature of booms, as we are seeing spectacularly demonstrated in global credit markets, is that standards relax and excesses creep in. Bob Birrell and Earnest Healy, demographers from Monash University, suggest in the latest issue of People and Place that this is happening in areas of the skilled migration program. It looks suspiciously like a significant minority of immigrants from countries in the region are effectively buying residence via the skills program. If Australians begin to feel migrants are being granted residency under false pretences there could be a backlash, as there was in the '80s when the family stream was rorted, particularly as the boom begins to cool.   more...

Guest workers are not the answer, training our own is

30 April 2008 By advocating so-called "labour mobility from the Asia-Pacific" Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit was embracing a key big-business demand that has the potential to devastate our labour market and open up major social divisions. The labour laws were meant to protect 457 visa workers who have been found time and again in the past 5 years to be underpaid and exploited and deported if they claimed unfair treatment. more...

Unions must stop opposing migrant labour schemes

2 May 2008 Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, has begun a wholesale review of the flawed 457 visas, which no doubt will uncover a Pandora's box of dodgy behaviour by some bad bosses. However, unions have a responsibility to our members to ensure that they get a fair go at work but also that they can live in a strong and prosperous society. That's why the AWU has decided to be a part of a new Pacific islands migration scheme for the agricultural industry. Ground rules that ensure Australians would get the first opportunity to be employed before any migrant labour is deployed and that any worker on the scheme can expect to earn the same as an Australian doing the same work. more...

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