Australian Immigration Daily News

Three of Australia’s big four’ banks have tightened their mortgage rules, and have ceased lending money to offshore customers who are not citizens or permanent residents of Australia.

The changes come on the back of rising concerns that fraud and money laundering are increasing among foreign buyers in the Australian property market, according an ABC report.

A raft of new rules were introduced last year, including visa checks, heavy fines, and forced sales to deter illegal foreign investment in the Australian housing market. Xu Jiayin, one of China’s richest men, was ordered to sell his $39 million Point Piper mansion within 90 days because it was purchased without approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board. The Treasury announced that several properties were being investigated for potential non-compliance with FIRB rules.

We have recently become aware of a company (myti.com.au aka MyCom) making cold telephone calls to RMAs in an attempt to sell RMAs printer and toner goods. When calling RMAs, they say that Migration Alliance has provided them with a 'list' of agents and their contact details.  We haven't.

myti.com.au are cold calling.  We have no relationship with them.   

They apparently have a call centre offshore.

A recent report from The Australia Institute showed that two in three new jobs in Queensland would come in the healthcare, professional and technical services, education and training, accommodation and food services and construction areas from now and probably well into the next 2 decades.

This is great news for the second-largest and third-most-populous state in Australia as job growth in these areas are outstripping job losses in the mining industry, notes the report.

In January, the Queensland Resources Council noted that the mining industry had cut over 20,000 jobs over two years. This is more than a quarter of the mining workforce.  Fortunately, over the same period total employment in Queensland increased by 72,000 due to strong employment growth in other industries, particularly services.

“No one who attempts to travel to Australia illegally by boat will settle in Australia.” 

So Minister Peter Dutton was quoted by the ABC as saying in response to yesterday’s ruling by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea that the detention of detention seekers on Manus Island breaches the right to personal liberty that is guaranteed by PNG’s constitution. 

It will certainly be interesting to follow what happens in the aftermath of this decision. 

On the eve of ANZAC Day, the peak tourism bodies of Australia and New Zealand launched a lobby urging the migration ministers on either size of the Tasman to develop a single tourist visa for travel to the two countries.

The move comes after a New Zealand government study found that 43 per cent of the 7578 single trans-Tasman visas granted during the Cricket World Cup last year were to Chinese nationals, although China did not have a team in competition.

The tourism chiefs of both countries say that granting entry to both Australia and New Zealand, could encourage more travellers to make long-haul flights to the region. Now, citizens from the two nations have reciprocal work and travel rights, but international tourists need to obtain separate visas for each country.