The exploitation of sc417 workers revealed by the ABC report this week put into the spotlight a shadow economy reliant on low-skilled workers which various governments of the day have refused to acknowledge.

“Officially, Australia only has a high-skilled migration programme (namely, the 457 visa), but in truth the Australian labour market is flooded with low-skilled temporary migrant workers on other visas”, state two academics in an opinion piece in The Age today.

There is a large underclass of workers in the agriculture and hospitality industries made up foreigners on various types of temporary visas including work/holiday visas, student visas and tourist visas. The numbers are not known but their plight is only talked about when media reports pierce the veil of secrecy behind which these vulnerable individuals work and are exploited.

“So how have we allowed this to happen? Successive Coalition and Labor governments have not only tolerated this unskilled migrant workforce, but have encouraged its growth,” state the opinion piece by Dr Joanna Howe and Associate Professor Alexander Reilly of the Adelaide Law School.

The academics propose that Australia introduce an official entry stream for low-skilled workers.

The department of immigration says that the exploitation of foreign workers in Australia is hard to uncover. ABCs hidden cameras however had no trouble revealing some of the shocking practices. There are now calls for the introduction of a low-skill work visa to allow for greater transparency and monitoring of foreign workers in the agriculture industry.

A Four Corners investigation this week has revealed that food being picked, packed and processed by exploited workers is being sold to consumers nationwide. The programme alleges that supermarkets and fast food outlets are involved naming Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, IGA, Costco, KFC, Red Rooster and Subway as retailers receiving produce from such suppliers.

Baiada, Australia’s largest poultry supplier came under the spotlight in the programme with allegations that it has deliberately engaged labour contractors in order to avoid direct responsibility for the exploitation. Baiada has previously been caught out by the Fairwork Ombudsman for underpaying workers, according to the programme.

The report says that workers are forced to work a relentless pace, criticized and abused endlessly, not allowed to drink water or even go to the toilet for hours on end. They live in cramped quarters and are paid well below the minimum wage with the contractors skimming off on their wages. There are claims that underpayment is estimated in some cases at about AU$30,000 per individual per year.

“All of the major suppliers are using dodgy labour hire contracting arrangements that fundamentally exploit the workers who pick and pack the vegetables,” alleged George Robertson of the National Union of Workers, Victoria.

Industry insiders and federal politicians are calling for urgent reforms to Australia's fresh food supply chain before it is too late. There are calls at a federal level for the supermarkets to stop shirking responsibility by passing accountability back to the suppliers and farmers. There have been calls to introduce a low-skill work visa in order allow for more transparency and monitoring by the authorities.

The Productivity Commission’s suggestion of selling Australian visas which some estimate will be in the order of $50,000 per visa rubs against the Australian ethos of a fair-go.

Australia already has the SIV which is a pathway for the wealthy. Perhaps that scheme needs to investigated and improved. Instead what we have are proposed changes to the SIV which could actually see the wealthy turn away from Australia. Amidst all this we now have suggestions of making everyone pay absurd amounts of money for a visa. Is Australia's skilled migration program not doing its job?

The implicit suggestion of the Productivity Commission’s investigation and the view of the quarters that support it is that migrants enter Australia and take advantage of all it has to offer namely its well-developed health and education facilities, and infrastructure and therefore they should pay for that privilege.

Radio reports even had some suggesting that migration agents be allowed to facilitate loans for visa applicants so that they can make the application.

How exactly does all this help attract the best and the brightest, to support the Australian economy over the long term?

$50,000 could soon be the cost of Australian citizenship under radical proposals being reviewed by the Productivity Commission. The government has asked the think tank to investigate a “price-based immigration system” which would effectively grant citizenship to those who are willing to pay the price, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald today.

With the budget blowout now estimated at $150 billion over the next four years – which is $50 billion higher than first thought – the government is seriously considering a radical shift away from migration based on skills and family connections to a person’s wealth.

“Such a scheme could help the government rein in the budget deficit by bringing in tens of billions of dollars in extra revenue and allow it to trim the number of public servants administering Australia's immigration system,” notes the report.

The Productivity Commission paper on Australia's migrant intake, released on Friday, raises some dramatic proposals including introducing an immigration lottery and creating a HECS-style payment system for immigrants to pay back their entry fee - those who cannot pay the fee upfront may be allowed to borrow against future expected earnings or by introducing a loans program.

Businesses needing skilled migrants could pay the fee or governments could waive the fee for particular professions or trades, according to the report.

The Productivity Commission will release a draft report in November and hold public hearings before it hands its final report to government next March.

The OMARA has effectively told the Migration Alliance that it will do nothing about a complaint raised by the MA that a public seminar on migration is set to be delivered by a person not registered with the OMARA.

You may have a PhD, you may be a lawyer, you may be a CPA or have other professional qualifications, but to provide migration advice you are required to be a registered migration agent with the OMARA, unless specific exceptions under the law apply.

It is Migration Alliance's concern that presenters need to be listed on the OMARA’s list of registered migration agents.   According to the Global Talent Summit (Sydney) speaking schedule, the following workshops are set to run:

• Introduction to Australian & New Zealand Immigration for International Recruitment. 
• Managing your risk – Immigration Risk Management for Intra-Company Transfers. 
• Australian Immigration Policy Updates – Labour Agreements, English Language Requirements and Skills Assessment. 

However, no RMA is listed as a presenter for these workshops. Do you think that this is right or the matters set out in the workshop amount to immigration assistance under the Migration Act?

Section 276 of the Migration Act  among other things, indicates that a person gives immigration assistance if the person uses, or purports to use, knowledge of, or experience in, migration procedure to assist another person about nominating or sponsoring a visa applicant for the purposes of the regulation. To provide immigration assistance, registration with the OMARA is required.