The Federal Court has thrown out a challenge by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) to measures introduced by the Abbott Government making it easier for foreign workers to be employed on offshore oil and gas projects, reports the ABC.

The action by the MUA was in response to Senator Michaelia Cash’s move which invalidated legislation deeming oil and gas projects to be within Australia’s migration zone. Senator  Cash said the controversial move was necessary to restore certainty to the $200 billion offshore oil and gas sector.

The MUA claimed in court the Federal Government did not have the power to use the legislative instrument in that way. However, the Federal Court has dismissed the legal challenge. It did not find the use of the legislative instrument invalid.

Speaking to the ABC, AMMA chief executive Steve Knott said the court case had been the latest attempt by maritime unions to gain control over an industry that historically operated outside their traditional coverage.

Mr Knott said the ruling gave certainty to both Australian and non-Australian workers in the offshore resource industry.

Scammers are preying on visa hopefuls from the Indian subcontinent and China with the promise of visas, ready jobs with high salaries and short work hours in the fruit-picking and livestock industries.

DIBP has issued a statement that, “[DIBP has] become aware of a fraudulent website work4australia.com that claims to provide genuine migration services to Australia.

“The scam is an offer of a five-year eVisa with a USD4700 fee. It directs individuals to travel to Thailand, where a representative from the supposed organisation receives the payment and provides travel documents to Australia," notes the DIBP statement.

The website was registered sometime in April this year with the registrant listed as Alexndar Kriss according to the domain checking service whois.com. I tried calling the number but there was only an automated answering service response requiring my details be left behind for a callback.

More tell-tale signs of the scam were street address listed as follows: “Stree-11 / Town Point 90 Sippy Downs Dr, Sippy Downs QLD 4556, Queens Land Australia “

The website provides seven images of people representing various nationalities all of whom except the registrant are without surnames. None are registered migration agents. (http://work4australia.com/contact.php)

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Exclusive SIV cocktail event

Following the successful SIV cocktail events held in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne,  Migration Alliance is delighted to invite migration agents who practice in, or have an interest in Significant Investor 188 and 888 applications to an exclusive event by our sponsors NAB Private Wealth to be now held in Perth.

Interview by: Tanaya Das
Photo inset: Eddy Kang running to avoid ABC cameras after a CTTT hearing.

The Department of Fair Trading is now actively investigating Eddie Kang.

Re: Current issues with health systems

We want you to alert you to the fact that there have been some problems occurring in the electronic immigration health process since our last systems release on 22 August 2014 – these have been preventing some clients/agents being able to access eMedical Client via the ‘Organise your health examinations’ link in ImmiAcccount.

This was impacting clients who had lodged a GVP processed online visa application. However, this has now been resolved. A new issue has, however, been identified which is preventing some clients from accessing eMedical Client after lodging a My Health Declarations form. We will be scheduling a fix for this as soon as possible (hopefully mid next week). However, in the interim, please make sure that if completing an MHD form all address fields are populated when completing the form to avoid your case being impacted by this problem.