Auctioning off Australian visas could boost the country’s bottom-line by $7.6 billion per year but the Productivity Commission has rejected the idea saying that it is short-sighted and would attract the wrong sort of people. The commission also suggested that even the SIV program should be abolished.

In its draft recommendations, the Productivity Commission's report has instead called for improvements in the immigration system stating that it needs to focus on attracting skilled migrants, removing barriers to immigrants integrating into the labour market, and improving access to humanitarian migrants.

The draft recommendations have backfired on Liberal Democratic Senator, David Leyonhjelm who originally called for the investigation into the price-based visa system and suggested that charging $40,000 per permanent visa would allow for large tax cuts for Australians.

The commission said its research and analysis found that gains from auctioning off visas would be minor compared to the ongoing contributions and income tax that can be collected from younger immigrants over their lifetime. It said, skilled immigrants contribute much more in tax than they cost in services and warned that selling visas could hurt the economy in the long term.

The commission also stressed that migration levels need to be maintained for decades to increase income levels of Australians. It said that at current levels of immigration, Australia's population will reach 40 million by 2060, and real per capita incomes will climb 50 per cent.

Declaring to the ABC that he did not scam anyone and that it was his business partner who scammed visa hopefuls has not stopped the arrest of Abel Prasad by the Australian Federal Police.

Watch the ABC Report here

Police sources have told the ABC that both the NSW and Queensland Police as well as the Immigration Department that they have been investigating Abel Prasad of SVC Legal for some time.

Prasad however says he never acted as a migration agent and denies any wrong-doing. Prasad, who is the son of the late, eminent South Australian doctor and leading Fijian philanthropist Dr Umanand Prasad, now faces 23 charges relating to GST fraud.

On ABC’s 7.30 report last night, Indian student Jaspal Marok alleged that he handed Prasad his life-savings of $17,000 on the promise of a visa and job with a salary of $65,000 at one of Prasad’s companies, Snappy Digital only to subsequently be handed a forged visa from Prasad's business.

SIV application numbers since the scheme re-opened four months ago, remain low, but trade minister, Andrew Robb is confident that the recalibrated scheme will recover and attract “better candidates”.

Having suspended the SIV earlier this year due to fears that it was being abused, the government reintroduced the scheme requiring 10 per cent of the $5 million investment required under the scheme to be directed towards approved venture capital funds; and 30 per cent to go into listed small companies.

The hope was to stem complaints that foreign investors were driving up residential property prices and direct investments to where it is needed the most – emerging but higher risk local startups. Since being re-opened in July there have been more than 70 applications lodged for the Significant Investor Visa, worth $350 million in investment for Australia if all are approved.

Trade Minister Andrew Robb told The Australian Financial Review that early enquiries about the new scheme were encouraging.

"Interest in the program remains strong following the recalibration. Importantly, we are attracting candidates with a keen interest in investing in more dynamic and innovative areas of our economy," Mr Robb adding that, "The previous SIV framework had set the bar too low, with investment largely directed into passive investments."

On a recent 12 city roadshow through China, one funds manager claimed to have had 2000 people attend its 73 seminars, according to the AFR report.

One of Australia’s biggest tech companies has warned that it will take its business offshore if immigration rules are not loosened to deal with the current shortages and allow foreign workers to come onshore more easily.

5,000,000 jobs as we know it could disappear in the next 15 years and be replaced by tech jobs. Warning of a severe technological skills shortage in the next 10 to 15 years due to technological advancements, CEDA’s CEO Stephen Martin says almost 40 per cent of Australian jobs that exist today (5 million) have a ‘high to moderate chance of disappearing” and being replaced by highly skilled tech jobs.

Computerisation and automation of work is advancing at an unprecedented rate and is likely to do so for the next 20 years, notes CEDA’s major research report for 2015: Australia’s future workforce? But Australia’s commitment to educating the workforce for this sector is ‘woeful’ says Prof. Martin.

“Our labour market will be fundamentally reshaped by the scope and breadth of technological change, and if we do not embrace massive economic reform and focus on incentivising innovation, we will simply be left behind in an increasingly competitive global marketplace,” said Prof. Martin.

In what has been described as the largest corruption scandal in the department of immigration, a Brisbane based case officer took over half a million dollars in bribes for granting visas to at least 59 foreigners.

Calls have now emerged for an overhaul of the visa approval process after the conviction of corrupt immigration officer, Filipino-born Alex Escala Allan, 52, from Doolandella, in Brisbane’s southwest.

Allan was sentenced in the District Court in Brisbane on Tuesday to eight months’ jail for secretly receiving $563,290 in bribes between May 2013 and April last year, according to a report in the Courier Mail.

Among those granted the visas include Allan’s son and girlfriend, both who are now awaiting deportation. DIBP has not made much headway in tracking the others.