The following message has been sent out to all MIA members:

The Board of the MIA has today passed the following motion:

"That the Board rescinds the motion that it had proposed to be considered by Members at an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 18 February 2015 and the Board therefore cancels that Extraordinary General Meeting.

Today is the Freaky Friday 13th migration agent networking event in Sydney.  This is what I am wearing.  If you have not got your outfit ready then quickly go and buy a mask or costume.  See you there.

When: Friday 13th February 2015

Where: The Angel Hotel, 125 Pitt St Sydney

What time: 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

What to wear: Something black or freaky

Cost: $50 per head for canapés and drinks

Proposed menu: 

- spiced lamb samosa
- tomato, black olive and basil crostini (v)
- mexican prawn and lime salad on corn chips (gf)
- vegetarian spring roll (v)
- green pea and mint risotto balls (v)
- tandoori chicken drummer and cucumber raita (gf)
- pumpkin and goats cheese ravioli with fresh tomato and parmesan (v)
* (v) - vegetarian (gf) - gluten free

Places are limited so get in early and pay now to secure your place at this premium networking event.

To register, please download the registration form below and return to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Click to download event Registration Form

It looks like a taste for high-risk investments is set to become a new default criteria for prospective applicants under the Significant Investor Visa scheme should the draft investment framework released by the Abbot Government yesterday, take effect.

The reforms are aimed at “better directing investment through the visa schemes into more dynamic areas of the economy, including venture capital and small emerging companies,” noted the joint release from the Minister of Trade, Andrew Robb and Assistant Minister for DIBP, Michaelia Cash.

The release states that the proposed complying investment framework for the SIV scheme includes:

• Specifying that at least 20 per cent ($1m) of the applicant’s $5m investment must flow into early stage, growth capital investments, through approved venture capital funds.
• Specifying that at least 30 per cent ($1.5m) of the applicant’s investment must flow into emerging listed companies, through managed funds investing in small Australian stock exchange listed companies
• Reinforcing the existing rules banning direct investment into residential real estate, and introducing new measures to clamp down on indirect investment into residential real estate.  A portion of funds will continue to be permitted to flow into commercial real estate, via managed funds.
• Enhanced measures to improve protection for investors.

Media reports suggest that while venture capital fund managers have supported the idea, others indicate the measures may well kill off the SIV program given the conservative nature of SIV applicants who are largely looking for a safe place to park their funds whilst waiting on their permanent residency visa.

The Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia supported by a unanimous decision has made an unusual order “commanding” the Minister to grant an asylum seeker a protection visa within seven days.

The recent High Court decision which ordered Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to grant a permanent protection visa to a Pakistani asylum-seeker is a timely reminder of the power of the third arm of government – the judiciary. It takes politics out of the matter and addresses the intent of the law, rules on it and enforces it with orders, which sometimes need to be phrased strongly to get its message across.

This time, the wording of the orders, which essentially commanded the minister to act within 7 days, indicated a disdain at the disregard shown by former Minister of Immigration, Scott Morrison, to Australia’s protection obligations enshrined in the s65A of the Migration Act.

After the Tribunal had found the asylum seeker, known as “S297” was a genuine refugee and overturned DIBPs original 2012 refusal decision, former Immigration Minister Scott Morrison decided, with a determination to discourage boat arrivals, that it was “not in the national interest” to protect an unauthorised boat arrival. He then refused to grant a protection visa to “S297”. What is in the “National interest” is of course largely a political question.

DIBP originally denied a protection visa due to regulations capping the number of visas granted. DIBP relied on s85 of the Act, which allowed for the capping of visa numbers.