Australian Immigration Daily News

The following information is contained within the Minister's media release:

A carefully managed Migration Program is an important part of Australia’s economic recovery and will create jobs and bring high value investment to help Australia rebound from COVID-19. In 2020-21 the planned ceiling for the Migration Program will remain at 160,000 places.

The program will have a strong focus on attracting the best and brightest migrants from around the world, with a tripling of the Global Talent Independent program allocation to 15,000 places and an increase in the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) to 13,500 places. The BIIP will also be streamlined and reformed to ensure that investments are targeted at Australian venture capitals and emerging small and medium size businesses to support the economic recovery.

The Invitation Round took place on 06 October 2020. Invitations were issued as follows: 

457 / 482 visa holders: 14 invitations

• 190 nomination: 7 invitations
• 491 nomination: 7 invitations 

Matrix nominating Critical occupations: 91 invitations 

The purpose of the instrument is to specify the approved activities for detainees in immigration detention. This ensures that those detainees who participate in the approved activities will not be considered to be performing work in breach of paragraph 235(3) of the Act.

Paragraph 235(3) of the Act provides that an unlawful non-citizen who performs work in Australia, whether for reward or otherwise, commits an offence. However, paragraph 235(7)(a) of the Act provides that ‘work’ for the purposes of section 235 of the Act does not include a voluntary activity performed by a detainee in immigration detention, if that activity is of a kind approved in writing by the Secretary. Further, paragraph 245AF(a) of the Act provides that no offence is committed where a person in immigration detention engages voluntarily in an activity of a kind approved in writing by the Secretary.

The purpose of the instrument is to specify the approved activities for detainees in immigration detention. This ensures that those detainees who participate in the approved activities will not be considered to be performing work in breach of paragraph 235(3) of the Act.

The following announcement is on the BSMQ website:

The BSMQ business and skilled program is NOW OPEN.  We are open from Tuesday 29 September 2020 until Monday 5 October 2020. Please note, only decision-ready applications in a COVID-19 priority area will be considered.

Due to the limited nomination allocation and processing timeframe:

The Hansard document below is from a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Temporary Migration. This hearing was being held both via video conference and with witnesses in person in Canberra at Parliament House.

This was a public hearing and a Hansard transcript of the proceedings have been made public. The hearing was also broadcast via the Australian Parliament House website.

Source: Public-Hearing-17-Sept-2020-Temproary-Migration.pdf