As the housing boom in most Australian states continue, the demand for tradesmen is at a ‘crisis’ level – particularly the demand for bricklayers. This has had builders calling for easier and quicker access to tradesmen under the sc457 program - according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.

Three years ago, bricklaying cost was about $900 per 1000 bricks. Now it has topped $1500 and heading towards $2000, due to a severe shortage of bricklayers, particularly in Sydney.

Some 80 representatives of the housing and building industries gathered at Rooty Hill RSL in Sydney's west last week to discuss the issue shortage of bricklayers and called for easier access to sc457 workers.

"It's great to have the building boom, but you need to build the houses", Nathan Thurston, the marketing manager of leading NSW home builder, McDonald Jones Homes told the AFR. "You need the arms and the legs to get people into their homes sooner."

Brickworks managing director, Lindsay Partridge, said that the Austral Bricks order book was "extremely strong."

The importance of Twitter in today's world cannot be underestimated.  As a means of connecting to the world, having an opinion or listening to others, Twitter is as instant as it gets.  

Liana Allan, the Convenor of Migration Alliance, has today overtaken the DIBP's total number of followers.  The results below speak for themselves.

If RMAs would like Liana Allan to retweet their stories please include the handle @lianaallan when posting onto Twitter and Liana Allan will post to her audience. 

Members of the Migration Alliance are encouraged to nominate for positions to the board of our sister organization, the Migration Institute of Australia on MA’s “United Profession” ticket in the upcoming elections for MIA’s Board of Directors. 

Nominations for the MIA Board are open until 6 October 2015. 

The form that can be used to nominate for the Board can be found at the following link:  

Check this out!  A DIBP decision at its worst.    A Retail Buyer nomination has been refused on the basis that the case officer based their decision, not on ANZSCO, but on 'Internet Sources'.  See in particular page in the link below, which forms part of the decision record.

Retail-Buyer-nomination-refusal-based-on-Internet-Source.pdf

It is evident that case officers in the 457 visa stream are not being trained on, or not caring about the regulations and policy.

Regs and PAMS explains that an assessment on job descriptions is according to the majority of tasks in ANZSCO.

Christopher Levingston LLB has previously given advice to RMAs NOT to participate in random OMARA surveys.  There is no legal requirement for RMAs do do so. 

Agents should be alert to emails coming from the Office of the MARA.  As you are aware the Office of the MARA is now fully integrated into the DIBP and controlled by the Director of NSW/ACT.  This means that NOTHING you give to the Office of the MARA is being sent to an independent body. 

It has already been confirmed by the OMARA that surveys are not compulsory so there is no need to participate in them.  Why give your adversary a rope so they can hang you with it.  Don't forget, anything you give them they can (and will) use against you.  This is how a few agents have been de-registered already.