Australian Immigration Daily News

Minister for Families and Social Services Paul Fletcher today announced the Employer-led Refugee Employment Project, which will provide training, coaching and work experience to prepare 100 working age migrants and refugees for paid positions within the Woolworths Group.

The Australian Government is providing $600,000 to fund the project, which will run over 18 months in South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, and be operated by Community Corporate, a specialist in employment programs for migrants and refugees.

Source: Helping-migrants-and-refugees-into-work.pdf

As noted on my post on this blog on 19 November, there was a crucially important decision by Justice Greenwood of the Federal Court in Queensland in the case of Brown v Minister for Home Affairs (No. 2) where it was held that the AAT does in fact have power to extend the deadline for the filing of applications for merits review.

This decision literally shattered commonly held assumptions and wisdom that it was "settled law" that the filing deadling is absolutely rigid and inflexible and cannot be extended for any reason whatsoever.

The Brown  decsion is more than of  "casual"  or "passing"  interest - it is potentially of great significance to anyone who has had an applicaiton for review dismissed on the basis that it was filed past the filing deadline.

I have raised the issue of 'no SAF Levy refunds' today with the government.  I have made the submission in writing by way of email but cannot put the contents of that email on this blog, as the communication has been marked as 'FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY".

I will report back on here when I receive an update.

Liana Allan

Dear Colleagues,

My spies are telling me that the SAF payments are going into consolidated revenue and are not being held aside to skill Australians.

Quite apart from the "no refund" "policy" this programme is clearly out of control.

More overseas nationals are enjoying the expansion of the working holiday visa programme.  Over the last month a number of changes took place to allow more individuals to migrate to Australia under the working holiday visa scheme as well as increase of cut off age for certain nationals.

Subclass 417 Woking Holiday and Subclass 462 Work and Holiday Visas are designed to allow people 18 to 30 years old (inclusive) - except for Canadian and Irish citizens up to 35 (inclusive) - have their first extended holiday in Australia and work here to help fund their trip.

As the programme continues to expand, several legislative instruments were introduced to streamline the process.