Already facing a current shortage of 38,000 workers, the tourism industry woes are set to drift into dire straits if it doesn’t find an extra 123,000 workers - including 60,000 skilled workers - by 2020, according to a report by Deloitte Access Economics commissioned by Austrade.

A key recommendation of the report was to relax working-holiday visas for tourism sector work so that visa holders have no restrictions on staying on with the same employer beyond six months and are allowed to extend their stay for a further 12 months for working in the industry.

Former ACTU president cabinet minister Martin Ferguson told The Australian Financial Review (AFR) that the government must be flexible and allow temporary skilled workers when and where they are most needed.

"…with such an unprecedented pipeline of new hotel development and with record international demand, it will be important for governments to be flexible and allow temporary skilled workers when and where they are most needed,” said Mr Ferguson.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond, told the AFR that the report should ring "alarm bells" about the need to attract and retain workers in the tourism industry.

"The Australian government recently announced that they will extend working-holidaymaker visas from six months to 12 months with one employer in Northern Australia – this reform needs to be expanded to cover the entire country," she said.

Michael Jeremy through Legal Training Australia is kicking off Summer with a series of afternoon CPD at the University of New England Futures Campus in Parramatta.

The first in the series will be The Health Criteria.

The 3-Point CPD will cover the following.

Following the governments swift action to deport hundreds of non-citizens with a ‘substantial’ criminal record, media reports say the ‘outlaw bikie gang members are rushing to file citizenship to avoid being deported.”

It is estimated that some 400 people linked to organised crime on the federal government’s National Criminal Threat Database are non-citizens, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. DIBP is in the process of cross-referencing people on such databases to determine if they could be deported.

The government has already cancelled the visas of over 500 foreigners, since July last year. The cancellations have given little or no regard to the length of time they spent in Australia nor the effect of the cancellation on their Australian born partner and children. All it seems to take for the minister to make the call to deport them is if they had been sentenced to a year in jail or were the subject of criminal intelligence suggesting they were a threat to the community.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in just June he cancelled the visas of 57 criminals and had them removed from Australia or prevented them from returning to Australia.

DIBP figures revealed that New Zealanders make up more than half of the foreigners who have had their visas cancelled. This is followed by citizens of the United Kingdom.

A while ago, we received an interesting case where a business intends to hire an motor mechanic on a 457 visa. The interesting bit comes into play when the business is originally and primarily a food business. Why does a food business need to hire a motor mechanic?

The migration agent who was handling the case told us that the business owner plans to expand its food business by having a mechanic shop to service vehicles. Both food business and the potential mechanic shop targets mainly motorcycle enthusiasts.

As the potential mechanic shop does not hire anyone else but the proposed nominee, a motor mechanic, we knew that this case was not a straightforward one. On top of that, the business did not have the standard business sponsor rights yet; it seemed even more difficult than we initially thought.

Migration Alliance is in receipt of the following information:

• Past education (Medium of instruction)  - English abilities are acquired and only develop after training over several years. While speaking skills can be acquired while one lives, studies or works is an English speaking country for a substantial duration, writing proficiency cannot be achieved so easily and without receiving appropriate levels of training starting from early years of one’s education. 
• University, college grades achieved in Australia. Students adept at English are likely to score well and above average.
• Comparison of claimed scores with those that an applicant achieved at the time of their initial student visa application. 
• Number of attempts taken to achieve claimed scores. Progessive increases after sustained attempts may be acceptable.
• Location of a test centre – Applicant travelling to an overseas location to take the test may indicate collusion. 
• Other analysis that the Department may think pertinent.