Australia’s best chance of avoiding a recession is to encourage strong migration growth. However, Australia’s population growth is quickly fading in part caused by falling migration numbers, thus threatening to rob the country of one of its strongest pillars of growth at a time of rising risk of recession, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Australia's population growth rate has slowed to a rate last seen nearly 10 years ago, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) latest statistical survey revealed.

"In the year to March 2015, Australia's population growth rate continued to slow from its peak in 2008-09 and is now just below the 20-year average growth rate," said Denise Carlton from the ABS.

"The Northern Territory recorded its lowest growth rate in 11 years, at 0.2 per cent for the year ending March 2015. This is 80 per cent lower than that of March 2014. Net interstate migration losses were the greatest contributor to this slower growth, with the territory recording its largest ever interstate migration loss in the year to March 2015," said Ms. Carlton.

"Western Australia also recorded slower growth. In the past two years, net overseas migration to the state has dropped by 71 per cent, while net interstate migration has dropped to the point where the state has seen a net interstate loss. This has not been seen in over 10 years in this state."

In today’s post, I will continue with my consideration of the question: “How much of a problem does Public Interest Criterion 4020 really present?” 

Readers of the blog will recall that in a post earlier this week, our colleagues at Migration Alliance called attention to two recent decisions of the Federal Circuit Court where a  failure to satisfy PIC 4020 had led to the refusal of visa applications.  In yesterday’s post, I presented a discussion of one of those cases,

Katragadda v Minister for Immigration & Anor.  Today, I turn to the second case, Sun & Ors v Minister for Immigration & Anor, (2015) FCCA 2479 (11 September 2015).

What started off as the biggest wage scandal in Australian history, is now turning out to be much more than that with accusations of  an ‘indentured labour scheme’ being run by some 7-Eleven franchisees who operated ‘visa factories’ to supplement their income and run their businesses well under award wage rates by forcing students to breach visa laws.

Foreigners have been paying between $25,000 and $70,000 to certain 7-Eleven franchises to sponsor them on a visa, alleges a recent Fairfax report.

The report said that it has uncovered evidence that, “some franchisees are running as one-stop recruitment shops providing a steady stream of heavily indentured students and other workers into 7-Eleven stores.

“Foreign students as well as workers on 457 visas are understood to be part of the "visa factory" scam operated by some 7-Eleven franchisees. The model has franchisees charging workers $25,000 to $70,000 to sponsor them on a visa,” the report alleges.

The scandal has now become a matter set for a senate hearing in Melbourne today, where senior executives from the company as well as 7-Eleven workers who have been victims of wage fraud will appear.