News

‘457 Visa restrictions to hit property demand’ Australian housing demand could fall by as much as 10 per cent if new rules on 457 visas resulted in a halving of future approvals, according to scenario studies by investment bank UBS. The demand for housing could fall as much as 30 per cent if student visa approvals fell by a third.

EU adopt Australian-style border protection plan to stop illegal migrants Europe, the Courier Mail reported today, will adopt an Australian-style plan to block migrants arriving by sea. The plan will include deployment of military and forcibly returning asylum-seeker boats. Senior European officials have been warning the governments about “millions of people’’ from Africa at EU’s doorstep within five years if an urgent action was not taken. Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has been very satisfied with the Australian policies in this regard and has repeatedly said that it “restored integrity to our borders.’’ “Australians support the Coalition Government’s tough decisions on borders because, like the Europeans, we don’t want to see women and children drowning at sea,’’ he said.

International education hits $24bn in Australia The last financial year has seen an unprecedented growth in international student enrolments – around $24 billion flow into the Australian economy, an 18.5 increase on 2015. According to The Australian, almost all the growth was centred on the nation’s 40 universities. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that overseas students spent $23.5bn on costs of living, such as accommodation, fees, food and entertainment and another $656 million on other services. While this has mainly been concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne, regional universities are also increasingly outsourcing delivery to third parties in major cities. Education Minister Simon Birmingham says the vibrancy of the international student sector is “a testament to the reputation of Australian education across the world”. “International student numbers are up 14 per cent on last year and while the sector supports more than 130,000 jobs in Australia and delivers billions of dollars to our economy, what’s even more important are the global knowledge connections the sector fosters,” he said while talking to The Australian.

Federal Government reverses decision to remove scientific professions from MLTSSL The Federal Government has reversed a previous migration decision that had threatened South Australia’s science research sector. The government’s previous decision to remove scientific professions from the skilled occupations’ list had put foreign workers in South Australia and the State’s aspiration of becoming a global medical research capital in jeopardy. Life scientists, biochemists and microbiologists were scrapped from the Federal Government’s migrant skilled occupations list after a decision to replace 457 visas – a decision that has now been reversed. The move has been welcomed by Australian Medical Research Institutes Association president Tony Cunningham, who said the new list had put Australian science at a huge strategic disadvantage. He said, “We are delighted the Government has listened to the sector and has restored core medical research occupations to the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skill List (MLTSSL),” he said. With these roles now back on the skilled occupations list, South Australia universities and SAHMRI can again recruit leading researchers from overseas. The next update by the Federal Government is due to take place in January 2018.

Occupation Ceilings Released for 2017-18 The Department of Immigration has released the occupation ceilings for the 2017-18 Program Year here.

Australia wants to simplify visa process and needs your help The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) is seeking public comment on plans to simplify Australia’s visa system for international arrivals and align it better with the nation’s economic and social priorities. According to Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton, overseas travellers contribute to the nation’s wealth and a visa system is needed that would better harness the economic and social opportunities of the legitimate travellers. The Department’s paper ‘Policy Consultation Paper – Visa Simplification: Transforming Australia’s Visa System’ is available here. You can provide your views to the Department through our online web form. Submissions can be provided until 15 September 2017.

Final days for submissions to VET regulation review There is just over a week remaining for submissions to be made to the federal government’s review of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 and its legislative framework. Led by Professor Valerie Braithwaite, the review was announced in June and will examine whether the Act supports a responsive, effective and efficient approach to regulation of the sector. The call for public submissions will close on 18 August. Professor Braithwaite is due to report to the Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, Karen Andrews, by the end of the year. For further information and to make a submission, visit here.

Separating chaff from wheat – Here comes the TSS visa What was being speculated for long has finally happened. The government has finally bitten the bullet and has scrapped 457 visas altogether—at least in the name. A new category of visas will come in place which will be much more attuned to the needs of the Australian job market and at the same time keep “Australian jobs for Australians”. As someone who has been associated with the migration industry for many years, I heartily welcome the government’s move. For far too long this visa scheme was being misused by unscrupulous elements who brought a bad name to the industry. Now do we have a dearth of people in Australia who can be retail managers? Why do we need people coming from outside for that? Or, for that matter, people working as “cooks” in a pub or a fast food joint, where all you do is heat the food and churn out burgers? At the same time, I would like to congratulate Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull for also not tarring all with the same brush and retaining occupations which Australian businesses genuinely need. Just go through the list of eligible occupations and it will be clear that the migration option still remains open for a genuinely skilled person in a job that genuinely requires skills of a particular kind. Don’t panic and stay away from all the brouhaha that is happening on social media. We at Migration Centre of Australia are all geared up to help migration agents in familiarising them about these changes and the ways through which they can process their future applications. Don’t hesitate to contact us!

Good news coming from DIBP A couple of weeks ago in this space I had talked about how securing a partner visa in Australia was becoming an uphill task—with waiting times upwards of 16 months on average—and having one of the highest fees in all OCED countries. Our cover story in ME magazine, too, is on the same issue this time. Guess what, some ray of hope is beginning to emerge. The DIBP has sent out a communication wherein it talks about how the department is trying to fulfil targets before the financial year closes on June 30. At the same time it says the DIBP is digressing from the set pattern of granting partner visa according to its lodgement date. The communication says: “We will be giving priority to low-risk applicants and those regarded by DIBP as fully front-end loaded with documentation that immediately satisfies Partner criteria. This will result in a departure from our usual chronological method of assessing applicants by month of lodgement. Therefore, you may find that some visa applicants may receive decisions ahead of others who had lodged many months prior. This triaging approach has been endorsed by the Executive as an efficiency measure to identify partner applications which are potentially of the highest quality and lowest risk for visa places this programme year.” It is indeed heartening that the DIBP has finally realised that not all partner visa cases are an act of fraud and many cases are genuine and require fast disposal.

Got a leaking tap? Blame migrants! The Federal budget of Australia is due next month and as always what will be in store is making news. But curiously, migration industry too is keeping a close look. Now you will ask what migration industry has got to do with something that details the country’s finances and is purely an economic policy document. Well, strange are the times we live in. Housing affordability has been a hot button issue for past several months now and there are groups that are urging the government to announce a cut in migration so that it eases the housing prices in the country! This is the most lol thing that you must have heard in a long time. No debate on how to increase the housing supply, taking a holistic look at negative gearing, incentivising migrants to settle in cities other than Sydney and Melbourne; but what is being debated is how to cut migration. Ever heard of throwing the baby with the bathwater? This is what is being recommended. Politicians everywhere look for scapegoats and Australia’s are no different. But I am hopeful that sanity will prevail and powers that be will realise that it is migration which is oiling the economy’s engine so smoothly. Cut it and you will stutter to stop.