In NZ, backpackers get an extra three-month stay for three months of farm work. In Australia, they get an extra year’s stay for such an 88-day work stint. This incentive and farmers’ preference to backpackers over Pacific Islanders is undermining the seasonal worker program, a study by the World Bank and the Australian National University has found.

Australia's seasonal worker program (SWP) established in 2008 as a pilot, and then in 2012 as a permanent program, is aimed to help meet the labour needs in Australia’s horticultural sector and offer labour mobility opportunities to 2,500 Pacific islanders every year.

These workers who can stay here for between 3 and 6 months have to compete with  40,000 backpackers who complete farm stints to get an extra year’s work rights in Australia.

Report author Stephen Howes believes the ready supply of backpackers and financial and administrative burdens on growers using Pacific Islander labour, such as accommodation and private health insurance costs, contributes to the lower demand for seasonal workers, according to a report by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

He notes that "Backpackers turn up at your door, you don't have to do anything," he told AAP.

However, Prof Howes said most producers surveyed preferred using Pacific Islanders as they believed they were more reliable and harder working.

If your suppliers are chasing you for paid invoices or if you are not receiving your instalment payments, then it may be possible that your computer may have been hacked by a syndicate now targeting Australian businesses.

The scam involves scammers pretending to be legitimate suppliers advising changes to payment arrangements. It may not be detected until the business is alerted by complaints from suppliers that payments were not received, says a report from the Australian consumer watchdog, the ACCC.

The agency has received reports from Australian businesses that a scam operating in the northern hemisphere has headed down under. Businesses trading overseas – particularly with companies in Asia – are at higher risk of being ripped off by these scams. The United States and Canadian Better Business Bureau and the Internet Crime Complaints Centre (IC3) have both issued warnings about this business compromise scam.

How these scams work

• Scammers hack into vendor and/or supplier email accounts and obtain information such as customer lists, bank details and previous invoices.
• Your business receives an email, supposedly from a vendor, requesting a wire transfer to a new or different bank account.
• The scammers either disguise their email address or create a new address that looks nearly identical. The emails may be spoofed by adding, removing, or subtly changing characters in the email address which makes it difficult to identify the scammer’s email from a legitimate address.
• The email may look to be from a genuine supplier and often copy a business’s logo and message format. It may also contain links to websites that are convincing fakes of the real company’s homepage or links to the real homepage itself.
• The scam email requests a change to usual billing arrangements and asks you to transfer money to a different account, usually by wire transfer.
• The scam may not be detected until the business is alerted by complaints from legitimate suppliers that they have not received payment.  

ACCCs recommendations on how you can protect yourself

• Make yours a ‘fraud-free’ business – effective management procedures can go a long way towards preventing scams. Have a clearly defined process for verifying and paying accounts and invoices.
• Consider a multi-person approval process for transactions over a certain dollar threshold.
• Ensure your staff are aware of this scam and understand how it works so they can identify it, avoid it and report it.
• Double check email addresses - scammers can create a new account which is very close to the real one; if you look closely you can usually spot the fake.
• DO NOT seek verification via email – you may be simply responding to the scammer’s email or scammers may have the capacity to intercept the email.
• If you think a request is suspicious, telephone the business to seek verification of the email’s authenticity.
• DO NOT call any telephone number listed in the email; instead, use contact details that you already have on file for the business, or that you have sourced independently – for example, from a telephone directory.
• DO NOT pay, give out or clarify any information about your business until you have looked into the matter further.
• Check your IT systems for viruses or malware - always keep your computer security up-to-date with anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a good firewall.

Migration Alliance is very pleased to announce our new partnership with Secured Signing.

Secured Signing provides a secure paperless digital signature service that allows immigration agents to invite their clients and supplier to fill-in and sign documents online from anywhere, anytime.

- Stop Print-Sign-Scan process

In terms of finances, British migrants moving from the UK to Australia can now benefit from the best exchange rates on GBP/AUD since 2009.

Towards the end of last week The Pound edged just over $2, or the from an Australian point of view the Dollar dropped to 0.4990.

The main reason for this being the release of Australian unemployment data which was announced yesterday and against predictions hit 6.2% - which is a 12 year high.

Can the current MIA board still carry on? It’s hard not to wonder if the MIA’s recent backflip was to avoid facing an embarrassing outcome at the EGM. In calling off the motion and the EGM just days before the vote, the Board has acknowledged the ‘need for a more comprehensive process to ensure wider consultation’.

It remains baffling how such an ill-conceived motion came to be tabled in the first place, and subsequently defended with equally flawed logic. Contributors to the Migration Alliance blog have lashed out at the MIA board with some now calling for the entire Board to resign.

“This was always headed for disaster. I had intended to fly from Queensland to oppose the proposal which was based on spurious arguments relating to other non-comparable organisations across the world. Whoever wrote that should be sacked” wrote Peter Tully, who asserts that, “The board should resign so that fresh blood can be injected into the MIA.”

All this embarrassing and damaging publicity which forced the back-flip are scars that are going to remain and begs the question: has the current board lost its credibility with the members to such an extent that they should now consider inviting new faces with fresh ideas to steer the MIA henceforth.

The publicity drummed up by the Migration Alliance and the selfless efforts of many members who offered to personally attend the EGM and act as proxies for those who couldn’t was effectively a revolt. No one was going to let the Board sneak in such a major change through an EGM announced on such short notice. And to save itself from the embarrassment of a romp at the EGM, the Board has made a tactical retreat to rescind the motion and cancel the EGM.

The MIA now needs to appoint a CEO to get its house in order and prevent the National Board from making a mockery of the organisation again.

“The decision not to appoint an independent, professional CEO after the departure of Maureen Horder has led to what is in effect an anomaly that is a President acting through a former member of staff, namely Kevin Lane” notes Liana Allan. This cannot continue. At least, now the current MIA board should know where it stands with its members. And yes, we told you so.