The Government failure to address the shortage of workers faced by the regional tourism industry in Australia has had regional tourism operators now pushing for greater flexibility in the working holiday visa program in order that backpackers can extend their working holiday stay by working in the tourism sector.

Currently, travellers on a Working Holiday Visa must spend 88 days working in the agriculture, mining or construction industry to be eligible to extend their visa for a second year. Regional tourism operators are now pushing for changes to the Working Holiday Visa, so that backpackers looking to extend their stay could work in regional restaurants, caravan parks and motels, according to an ABC report.

However, vegetable growers are resisting the calls by the tourism industry to loosen restrictions on backpacker visas. Vegetable growers told the ABC that such a change would be crippling, making it even harder for growers to source enough labour during critical harvest and packing periods.

Andrew McDonald, a spokesman for the peak body for the vegetable and potato industry, AUSVEG said any change would have a massive and detrimental impact on the industry.

"We don't want to see that workforce diluted by having them potentially opt for tourism jobs over the agricultural jobs that are so important to our industry" says Andrew McDonald, of AUSVEG.

The chair of the Australian Regional Tourism Network, David Sheldon, said it was 'extremely difficult' to find enough qualified labour, and backpackers often had the basic food service and hospitality skills regional tourism operations need.

There are now some 60,000 Australian’s anxiously awaiting the immigration department’s approval to bring their spouses in to the country. The wait on average is between 12 and 15 months.

Added to this the government recently increased the visa application charges for spouse visas to almost $7000 with no assurance that it intends to shorten the wait. Instead, Assistant Immigration Minister Michaelia Cash said the fee ¬increases were needed to “repair the budget and fund whole-of-government policy priorities”.

Why target the partner visa? The Australian reports that migration agents it interviewed recently warned that the new government fees are unfair and discriminatory.

The report states that one of the country’s leading demographers says the family migration system is in urgent need of review, with up to 60,000 Australians waiting for departmental approval to bring spouses in to the country. The average length of time for ¬approval is now between 12 and 15 months.

From January 1, the cost for someone wanting to migrate to Australia to marry their partner rose to $4627, up 50 per cent from last year’s fee of $3085.The cost for onshore permanent partner visas has risen from $4575 to $6865. The price increases announced in December’s mid-year budget review will reap $373.6 million for the government’s budget repair mission over the next four years.

A new pilot program for online lodgement of subclass 600 visas for Indian business and tourism visitors is in the process of being rolled out through selected travel agents in India, according to a media release from the office of the Minister for Trade and Investment.

The department of immigration itself has made no announcement on the matter but it is expected that the trial will follow that of the one recently rolled out in China. According to Senator Michaelia Cash, the China trial was “limited to low risk cohorts to ensure programme integrity is maintained”.

DIBP currently has agreements to accept applications for certain classes of visa from overseas agents who are not registered with the Migration Agents Registration Authority.It is unfortunate that registered migration agents actually cannot use these online facilities unless they are part of those agreements.

Indian outbound traveler numbers surge

Although India is said to be one of the world’s fastest growing outbound travel markets, the total tourist arrivals from India to Australia rank 10 compared to arrivals from other countries according to a publication by Tourism Australia . New Zealand, China and the UK take the top three spots.

Proprietors of a Launceston restaurant who setup an elaborate and unconscionable system to defraud the immigration department and underpay a chef over a period of four years have been fined $100,000 by the Federal Court for underpaying wages and creating false wage records.

According to a report on the ABC, the Fair Work Ombudsman had found David and Priscilla Lam, who own Dave's Noodles in Launceston, created false records to pay a staff member for a 38-hour week when he worked 60. It resulted in the Chinese chef being underpaid $86,000 over a four-year period.

The couple convinced the chef, who they sponsored on a 457 working visa, he had to sign the false time and wage sheets for immigration purposes.

The Federal Court fined the pair $100,000 and ordered them to repay the employee.

The couple are also the franchisors of the Dave's Noodles restaurants in Hobart, Burnie, Kingston, Moonah and Mowbray.

When clients based offshore receive an invoice from their migration agent in Australian Dollars, they are often faced with the task of wondering what the most effective way to pay for it is.

Many will use their bank and incur a $50 bank fee for the privilege, others will us their credit card and receive a less than favourable exchange rate, making the invoice more expensive than it has to be.

An ever increasingly popular method is clients using a foreign currency exchange payment specialist to assist with the transaction ensuring;