Fairfax media has claimed to have uncovered a widespread abuse of student visa holders by employers who are paying them as little as $8 per hour, an amount which is less than half the minimum wage of $16.87 an hour.

Foreign students, who have to quickly settle down to focus on their studies as well get some paid work with a limited skill set to cover high rents, are undoubtedly a desperate lot who are falling victim to unscrupulous employers.

Try asking a foreign student waiter what the minimum wage is in Australia. Chances are they would be clueless and some may even think $8 per hour is generous compared to countries living below the poverty line.

It has to make you wonder how well these sons and daughters are protected from other workplace abuses and injuries. Most are probably fearful of reporting it due to DIBPs tough stance on visa work conditions and some students are perhaps just unaware of their rights in the workplace.

According to The Age, in January 2013, Fairfax Media uncovered “a disturbing number of restaurants across Sydney that grossly underpaid staff and flouted regulations. The 40-odd premises paid workers as little as $8 an hour.

A teenager charged with doing burn outs which left a 60 year-old-woman in hospital has been taken to Villawood Detention Centre, with his bridging visa revoked, according to a Nine News report.

The night when the lower ranked Iraqi soccer team beat Jordon with a late goal in its first round match of the Asian Cup, set an 18-year-old Iraqi to do burnouts in a Fairfield carpark in Sydney.

Unfortunately, that episode allegedly led to his car hitting a 60-year old woman leaving here with a shattered pelvis.

The news report states that the teen turned himself in, was granted bail and released from Surry Hills Police Centre but only to be then immediately placed in the custody of immigration officials.

The man’s bridging visa has been cancelled and he has been taken into the Villawood Detention Centre, a spokesman for the Minister of Immigration and Border Security told Nine News.

It was not reported on exactly what grounds the man’s visa was cancelled.

The Government failure to address the shortage of workers faced by the regional tourism industry in Australia has had regional tourism operators now pushing for greater flexibility in the working holiday visa program in order that backpackers can extend their working holiday stay by working in the tourism sector.

Currently, travellers on a Working Holiday Visa must spend 88 days working in the agriculture, mining or construction industry to be eligible to extend their visa for a second year. Regional tourism operators are now pushing for changes to the Working Holiday Visa, so that backpackers looking to extend their stay could work in regional restaurants, caravan parks and motels, according to an ABC report.

However, vegetable growers are resisting the calls by the tourism industry to loosen restrictions on backpacker visas. Vegetable growers told the ABC that such a change would be crippling, making it even harder for growers to source enough labour during critical harvest and packing periods.

Andrew McDonald, a spokesman for the peak body for the vegetable and potato industry, AUSVEG said any change would have a massive and detrimental impact on the industry.

"We don't want to see that workforce diluted by having them potentially opt for tourism jobs over the agricultural jobs that are so important to our industry" says Andrew McDonald, of AUSVEG.

The chair of the Australian Regional Tourism Network, David Sheldon, said it was 'extremely difficult' to find enough qualified labour, and backpackers often had the basic food service and hospitality skills regional tourism operations need.

There are now some 60,000 Australian’s anxiously awaiting the immigration department’s approval to bring their spouses in to the country. The wait on average is between 12 and 15 months.

Added to this the government recently increased the visa application charges for spouse visas to almost $7000 with no assurance that it intends to shorten the wait. Instead, Assistant Immigration Minister Michaelia Cash said the fee ¬increases were needed to “repair the budget and fund whole-of-government policy priorities”.

Why target the partner visa? The Australian reports that migration agents it interviewed recently warned that the new government fees are unfair and discriminatory.

The report states that one of the country’s leading demographers says the family migration system is in urgent need of review, with up to 60,000 Australians waiting for departmental approval to bring spouses in to the country. The average length of time for ¬approval is now between 12 and 15 months.

From January 1, the cost for someone wanting to migrate to Australia to marry their partner rose to $4627, up 50 per cent from last year’s fee of $3085.The cost for onshore permanent partner visas has risen from $4575 to $6865. The price increases announced in December’s mid-year budget review will reap $373.6 million for the government’s budget repair mission over the next four years.

A new pilot program for online lodgement of subclass 600 visas for Indian business and tourism visitors is in the process of being rolled out through selected travel agents in India, according to a media release from the office of the Minister for Trade and Investment.

The department of immigration itself has made no announcement on the matter but it is expected that the trial will follow that of the one recently rolled out in China. According to Senator Michaelia Cash, the China trial was “limited to low risk cohorts to ensure programme integrity is maintained”.

DIBP currently has agreements to accept applications for certain classes of visa from overseas agents who are not registered with the Migration Agents Registration Authority.It is unfortunate that registered migration agents actually cannot use these online facilities unless they are part of those agreements.

Indian outbound traveler numbers surge

Although India is said to be one of the world’s fastest growing outbound travel markets, the total tourist arrivals from India to Australia rank 10 compared to arrivals from other countries according to a publication by Tourism Australia . New Zealand, China and the UK take the top three spots.