This initiative is spearheaded by Mark Glazbrook, RMA, who has sent the following email to Migration Alliance.  We support Mark's initiative and provide a copy (with permission) of Mark's email below.  Please contact Mark directly should you wish to contribute.

Currently I am trying to raise $30-$35K from interested groups towards getting economic research undertaken into the net economic benefits that can be achieved in SA through the introduction of an economic migration program.  This is focused on SA as this is the local economy that I know very well.  The overall plan would be based nationally to eligible jurisdictions.

These are a couple of recent media releases from Nick Xenophon about Nick and Jacqui Lambie introducing a private members bill and some of the work I have been doing with him.

Wow. Just. Wow.

That was my initial reaction when I came upon this article on the ABC News Website last night that apparently prompted the article that was posted on the Migration Alliance blog by my colleague Jerry Gomez:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-10/federal-court-judge-alexander-street-accused-of-bias/6764704

"Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." R v Sussex Justices, Ex parte McCarthy [1924]. This famous principle actually allows for judicial decisions to be overturned if there is a mere appearance of bias.

With Federal Court Judge Alexander "Sandy" Street accused of ‘apprehended bias’ after having rejected over 252 appeals of the 254 migration cases he considered over a period of six months, applicants are presenting these statistics to show that those seeking a judicial review of migration decisions had virtually no chance of succeeding in Judge Street's court.

Even the editor of the Federal Court Reports, Victor Kline, has apparently sworn an affidavit for the Full Federal Court alleging that Judge Street found in favour of the Immigration Minister in virtually every case he heard between January and June this year, according to a report on the ABC.

“According to the statistics, the judge dismissed a large number of cases at the first court date, which is usually set aside for laying down a timetable for gathering evidence and scheduling a hearing,” noted the ABC report.

Monash University law professor Matthew Groves told the ABC that such analysis of an individual judge's rulings was rarely seen in Australian courts.

Is there any way to avoid the cancellation of a student visa when the visa holder breaches a condition of the visa that requires him to be enrolled in a registered course throughout the duration of the visa?

This was the dilemma that confronted the visa holder in the case of Karki v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection & Anor, (2015) FCCA 1940 (20 July 2015). Unfortunately for the visa holder, the breach of the condition led the Department to cancel his student visa in the first instance, and that cancellation was affirmed both by the Migration Review Tribunal (as it was then known) and by the Federal Circuit Court.

However, the decision does highlight some possible “escape routes” that might be relied on by the holders of student visas to preserve their visas against cancellation and thus to maintain their entitlement to remain in Australia to continue with their studies. 

Given a chance, they land on their feet and potentially can become job creators, this is what figures released for the first time by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) seem to indicate.

According to the ABS figures, migrants generated $38 billion in total income in 2009-10. Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of migrant taxpayers were Skilled, 28 per cent were Family migrants and 4 per cent were Humanitarian migrants. On average, skilled migrants earned a median wage of $43,593 and were from Britain, India, China, South Africa and the Philippines. Family migrants, who have been reunited with family members in Australia earned a median wage of $30,000 and humanitarian visa holders, earned a median wage of $27,000.

“While almost two-thirds of migrant taxpayers were migrants with a Skilled visa — reporting $26 billion in Employee income — Humanitarian migrants displayed greater entrepreneurial qualities and reported a higher proportion of income from their own unincorporated businesses and this income increased sharply after five years of residency,” noted Jenny Dobak from the ABS.

Migrants born in the UK reported the most total income at $8.8 billion, while migrants born in India were the second largest income contributors with $5.3 billion of total income. Migrants born in South Africa comprised only 5 per cent of all migrant taxpayers but received $2.8 billion in total income. People from Sudan and Sierra Leone earned the most income within the humanitarian category.

Median Employee incomes for Skilled males exceeded the median Employee income for Skilled females across all age groups. Almost 55 per cent of migrant taxpayers were males reporting 65 per cent or $24 billion of total income.

The statistics only included figures on permanent migrants, excluding people on temporary visas such as 457 or students visas who have been under particular scrutiny lately after the 7-Eleven franchise chain was exposed in Australia for grossly under-paying staff on student visas. Under the Abbott government, 13,750 people are granted a humanitarian visa a year. These figures are set to increase to 18,750 annually from 2018. The Abbott government yesterday announced a one-off increase of 12,000 humanitarian visa places to help resettle the estimated 4 million people displaced by the crisis in Syria.