Australian Immigration Daily News

The Budget 2017: Funding apprenticeships through a levy on business sponsors. 

Again we see our political leaders passing the blame for their own inadequacies to immigrants.

 The Australian business community cannot be held to ransom over the political failure to adequately fund and support the training of Australian skilled workers. Realistically this is an additional tax (just another term for levy) to be imposed on business to further disadvantage small business. The very Australian businesses that are suffering from the skills shortage, are being expected to foot the bill.

On 5 May 2017, the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection announced the introduction of a new “temporary sponsored parent visa”.

The announcement follows a commitment made by the Turnbull Government during last year’s election campaign to introduce this new parent visa.

The availability of this parent visa will be dependent on the passage of the Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2016 through the Parliament.  That Bill is currently before the Senate.  If the Bill is passed in Parliament’s Winter Sittings, it is expected that the new visa will be available in late 2017.

Last night the Coalition Government delivered the Budget.  This has provided some interesting insight in relation to Australia’s immigration programme for the year ahead.  Below is key point summary of the Budget:

Job Cuts at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection:

Evident restructure within Government departments was seen across all sectors. Around 245 positions will go from Immigration and Border Protection, explained through "net movements in measures and operational pressures".  This could mean further delay in visa application processing times.  Current 457 visas take around 59 days to be processed with approximately 90% of cases processed in 6 months.

Some welcome news at a State level for subclass 457 visa holders impacted by recent legislative changes! South Australian Government is accepting nominations for 457 visa holders currently working in South Australia for a 190 or 489 General Skilled Migration visa allowing these individuals to remain in South Australia. The added bonus the fact that these visa pathways place no requirements on the employer.  Where a subclass 457 visa holder has worked in South Australia for 12 months or more, they will have access to more than 400 occupations.  This is welcomed news by those visa holders who are no longer eligible for another 457 visa or subclass 186 as a result of the changes last month.  The changes are summarised here:  http://migrationalliance.com.au/immigration-daily-news/entry/2017-04-key-dates-introduction-of-temporary-skill-shortage-visa-tss-and-phasing-out-of-temporary-work-skilled-subclass-457-visa-457-visa.html

In addition to having more occupations available to choose from, South Australia is offering further concessions on English language requirements. Applicants securing a state nomination can get up to 10 extra points for DIBP’s points test. Five will be awarded for state nomination relating to subclass 190 visa and ten relating to a state nomination for subclass 489 visa.

Securing a subclass 489 or 190 visa will also allow visa holders access to local school fees.

Does the Department have the authority to confiscate mobile phones from people who are being held in immigration detention?

This question is prompted by a change in the government’s policies that were announced in late May 2016, and which began to be implemented in February of this year. 

Prior to this policy change, a “two-tiered” approach to the possession and use of mobile phones by persons in detention had been in place since 2010.  Under that two-tiered approach,  persons  who were being held in detention because they were “illegal maritime arrivals” were not allowed to have or use mobile phones, but otherwise, persons who were in detention because their visa had been cancelled on character grounds were allowed to have and use mobiles.