A Darwin-based hospitality business has been ordered to pay a record fine for exploiting at least 10 foreign 457 Visa workers as cheap labour; illegally forcing them to pay migration agent costs and forging documents to mislead Immigration officials.

Choong Enterprises Pty Ltd, the Director of Choong Enterprises, and one other person were found to have breached their sponsor obligations under the Migration Act. The fine amounting to over $175,000 was ordered by Justice John Mansfield who said the “civil penalty regime” was integral to “secure the integrity of the Australian labour market by ensuring people who are sponsored to work here are not employed in a manner that undercuts standard employment conditions”, and added that “It also protects those who are brought to Australia and who are vulnerable to exploitation.”

The offending took place at the expense of 10 Filipino workers employed as cooks, restaurant managers and food and beverage supervisors by the Nightcliff-based business — which operates a number of restaurants and cafes in Darwin and the NT — between 2009 and 2012. The company director Ronald Choong was found to have gained a direct benefit by enabling the offending as the sole director and shareholder, according to a report in the NT Times.

“This is the first civil penalty application my Department has undertaken in the Federal Court, and is the largest civil penalty any court has imposed for a breach of sponsor obligations,” Minister Cash said. “This action highlights the fact that the Government takes any alleged breach of 457 visa sponsorship very seriously and will pursue court action if appropriate.”

The court found that Choong Enterprises had paid 457 visa holders as little as $12 an hour, failed to abide by its record keeping obligations, had knowingly produced false pay records and had illegally recovered the costs of migration agent fees from four visa holders, among other contraventions. It found that that the director of Choong Enterprises, Ronald Choong, had aided and abetted these breaches.

“The stiff penalty this company has received should send a warning to other sponsors: if you fail to meet your requirements, my Department may impose administrative sanctions, issue an infringement notice, execute an enforceable undertaking, or apply to the federal court for a civil penalty order,” Minister Cash said in a media release.

One of the shock announcements of the Budget was that working holiday visa holders will be required to pay about a third of their earnings in taxes. The Treasurer announced that from July 2016, those on a working holiday in Australia will no longer enjoy a tax free threshold of up to $18,200, and will instead be forced to pay 32.5 per cent tax from their first dollar earned. That measure will apparently save the budget $540 million over four years.

What is the real cost of this? Backpackers might go elsewhere like New Zealand. Fewer backpackers here could also mean a dive in the enrolments in the ELICOS sector – the English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas students. The ELICOS visa has been used by many backpackers to remain in Australia at the end of their work/holiday stint and some go on to full student visas for other courses.

Sue Blundell, English Australia’s executive director told The Australian that taxing backpackers will affect the ELICOS sector badly as these working holiday-makers could start looking elsewhere and drastically damage a $2 billion dollar industry.

The ELICOS sector accounted for 15.0% of total student enrolments and 21.5% of total commencements in YTD February 2015. A report by EA and the federal Department of Education has found that almost 164,000 students started English language courses last year, with student numbers increasing by 11 per cent on last year and revenues climbing to $2 billion.

China accounted for the largest cohort of enrolments and commencements in ELICOS with shares of 26.1% and 21.7% respectively. Brazil was the next largest nationality for ELICOS enrolments with 8.0%, followed by Thailand and Colombia (7.8% and 6.9% respectively).

In just four years, the number of Australian families needed to house the international students has soared 400 per cent, according to figures from the NSW Department of Education.

Paying an average of $300 a week to live with an Australian family in NSW is clearly no obstacle even after forking out a similar amount each week to study at one of NSW’s 150 state public school fees that accept overseas students. Wealthy Chinese parents are apparently driving the demand for homestay accommodation for young children in especially NSW.

“Thousands of teenagers from Asian countries are increasingly being sent to NSW to finish their studies at the state's public high schools,” notes a report in The Sydney Morning Herald today.

The latest figures from the department revealed a 25 per cent increase in new, full fee-paying international students in just 12 months. About a third of these students are in homestay arrangements.

According to the report, in 2010, only 276 families were required to host international students, but in 2014, 1129 families were needed and a tender process to find more families to cater for the expected influx later this year has just closed.

Anyone here know a good small cap stock fund manager? Australia’s venture capital groups and small cap stocks fund managers probably had a great weekend given the announcement that a significant portion of funds under the SIV programme is to be directed their way from 1 July 2015.

If the SIV program leads to the grant of 1000 visas a year, there could well be an injection of AU$5 billion into the Australian economy annually. Venture capital groups are expected see $500,000 million of this with the Australian small cap stocks possibly absorbing AU$1.5billion.

The question hanging over the changes is whether the wealthy Chinese investors who make up over 90 per cent of SIV applicants will still remain keen on the programme. Venture capital groups and fund managers who spoke to The Australian Financial Review (AFR) were quick to play down the higher risk element introduced into the SIV program with one saying, “…they [Chinese investors] like to keep their money so it won't disappear, but they also understand that with high risks such as VCs come high returns.”

According to an AFR report, last year, Australian small-cap managers posted a remarkable 16.25 per cent (their equal-weighted average return) against the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries 0.76 per cent loss, according to the S&P Dow Jones SPIVA Australia Scorecard.

But small cap fund managers are known to charge hefty fees which can strip 20% of any gains for their work in investigating hundreds of companies each year to find the most promising ones for their clients.

Some investment analysts are saying that the changes to the SIV program which are set to be announced today could have a deterrent effect on the program with investors likely to shop elsewhere for their visa.

Details of the revamped Significant Investor Visa program are set to be released today, according to a report in The Australian. Under the changes, investors will be expected to invest about half of their funds in high-risk investments.

It is expected that at least $2.5 million of the $5million will have to go into investments in start-up and emerging companies, notes the report, as the new program wants to ‘divert the billions of dollars raised from the scheme away from ultra-safe investments such as government bonds and commercial property to more risky areas such as the start-up sector, which is cash-starved.”

“Foreign investors will need to invest at least half a million dollars, or 10 per cent of their total investment, in eligible Australian venture capital or growth private equity funds. Investors also need to set aside at least $1.5m for investing in ASX-listed small companies.”

The report states that there has been push-back from the property sector and some fund managers are expected to lose business as a result of the new change.