Australian Immigration Daily News

In the present era of "fake news", sometimes you come across stories in the paper that are so jaw-droppingly astounding that you just couldn't make it up if you tried.

And so it is with the Sydney Morning Herald article that can be found by clicking here.

The article reports that the Department is planning to spend $250,000,000 - that's right, a quarter of a billion dollars - on fit out  of the building shown in the photo, which is reportedly near the airport in Canberra. 

Is it possible to challenge the factual conclusions that are made by the Tribunal?

Suppose, for example, that you have a client who is seeking a skilled visa and is relying on a claimed work history in a foreign country in support of that application. 

Suppose further that the Tribunal finds “inconsistencies” between the applicant’s account of her prior employment – for example, the hours during which the applicant worked, or the tasks that the applicant carried out - and the employer’s account.

Life is full of ironies, so why should politics be any different?

So then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that yesterday, 21 March 2017, a day that was proclaimed as “Harmony Day” by the Australian Government, a day intended, according to the government’s own Harmony Day Website, to promote “inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone”, the Turnbull Government announced proposed changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to loosen restrictions against hate speech.

As currently in force, section 18C, which is headed: “Offensive behavior because or race, colour or national or ethnic origin” makes it unlawful for a person to do an act “otherwise than in private” (in other words, in public) that is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people, and is done because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group.

Is there something rotten in the state of Denmark?

Or to put the question in contemporary and migration terms, is the existing framework for assessing non-judicially determined claims of family violence flawed?

Is it fair? Is it just?

The Migration Alliance has received a concerning report from a Registered Migration Agent in Western Australia about apparent actions by the Western Australian government in relation to the Regional Sponsored Migration scheme.

We are informed by our colleague in WA that the new premier of WA, Mark McGowan, had stated during the recent election campaign that he would seek to have Perth “removed” from the scheme.

And indeed, a news article in the West Australian reports that Premier McGowan asked Prime Minister Turnbull to remove Perth from the RSMS scheme within hours of his election victory on Saturday 11 March 2017. The West Australian says that the purpose of this request was “to make it easier for locals to find work”.