Australian Immigration Daily News

Compilation was registered on 21/11/2019
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019C00853

Border Watch and the Office of the MARA co-hosted a booth at the Home Affairs Industry Summit in Melbourne this week.

Border Watch is the correct place for people to lodge complaints against unregistered immigration operators.  Not the Office of the MARA. 

The Office of the MARA only deal with Registered Migration Agents.  The Office of the MARA do not handle complaints about unregistered operators, even if the unregistered person is located inside Australia.  

The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured $307,802 in penalties in the Federal Circuit Court in response to 154 workers across three PappaRich restaurants in Sydney being underpaid $74,000.

A total of $34,425 in penalties have been imposed against Loke Cheng Wong, manager-operator of the PappaRich franchise outlet at Macquarie Park, and former manager-operator of PappaRich franchise outlets in Chatswood and on Liverpool Street in the Sydney CBD.

In addition, two companies Mr Wong is a director and part-owner of - PPR Ryde (NSW) Pty Ltd and Gateharvest Pty Ltd – have been penalised $141,751 and $131,626, respectively, for their involvement in some of the underpayments.

Employers naturally felt a pinch when 216 occupations were removed from the Skilled Occupations List on 17 April 2019 upon the announcement that the 457 visa was being abolished. 

This left employers with handful of occupations which were further split into two segregated lists, the Short-term Skilled Occupations List (STSOL) with no access to permanent residence, as well as more restrictive New Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL), which allows permanent residence provided the occupation is most susceptible to supply constraints (e.g. due to the time taken to develop necessary skills) and/or most likely to warrant Australian Government intervention to address these constraints.

Nonetheless, this was all part of a well-planned reform to bring Australian immigration system into the 21^st century.  

Migration Newsletter 751 has been released and makes excellent reading:

Migration_Newsletter_751.01.pdf