More than 9000 public servants at the Immigration Department face random or targeted breathalysing and drug testing in their offices under a tough new workplace regime. DIBP officers are also being told that they must dob-in colleagues they suspect of misconduct, even if it occurs away from the workplace.

The crackdown doesn’t stop at drugs and alcohol use on their day jobs but is expected to see investigations into second jobs, social media use and sloppy appearances among the department's public servants, according to a report in The Canberra Times.

Immigration is the fourth largest public service government department now employing just over 9000 people according to ABS statistics.

Customs has already adopted these policies as part of its ongoing battle to get on top of its internal corruption problems.

A fact-sheet issued to the officers apparently sets out that public servants will be in trouble if caught with a blood alcohol reading above .02 or if they are found to be "impaired" by illegal or prescription drugs while on duty, according to the news report.

In addition to being available in English, the tribunals’ video guides for applicants are also available in Arabic (classical), Farsi, Mandarin, Punjabi and Vietnamese languages. The videos include a voice over and optional captions.

The videos are available on our website and focus on the role of the tribunals and its processes. The videos may be a helpful resource for migration agents preparing clients for hearings and for explaining other aspects of the tribunals’ work.

The videos available in this series are:

Last year, an unlicensed immigration adviser for New Zealand visas, Richard Martin, was sentenced to three years and seven months’ imprisonment after being found guilty on 93 immigration-related charges.

The New Zealand’s Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) said that this was the heaviest penalty handed down to an unlicensed adviser, since the IAA’s inception in 2007. Undoubtedly, it reflects how aggressively the IAA pursues and prosecutes fraudsters in the industry and how seriously it takes its role in protecting vulnerable people.

Acting Assistant General Manager of Compliance and Border Operations at Immigration New Zealand (INZ) Arron Baker said the sentencing is a result of a thorough investigation by INZ and the IAA. 

“Today’s sentencing should act as a deterrent to any other unlicensed adviser operating outside the system. They can expect the full force of INZ, IAA and New Zealand Police, if necessary, to ensure the integrity of our systems are maintained and vulnerable people are protected” said Mr Baker in a statement.

Like New Zealand, Australia has a system of licensing migration advisers. The system managed by MARA aims to promote and protect the interests of people receiving immigration advice. Essentially, it does this by issuing licenses to people who:

Australia’s is ageing faster than ever and birth-rates have fallen over 3 percent last year, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The figures show that immigration remains critical to Australia’s sustained growth but what is troubling is that migrants are flocking to Sydney and Melbourne while the other states are experiencing drastic falls in the rate of population growth. The statistics certainly indicate that there is an urgent need to better manage Australia’s immigration system to encourage a more even distribution of new arrivals.

Immigration added over 212,700 people to Australia's population in the year ending June 2014.  Net Overseas Migration (NOM) remains the key driver to Australia’s population growth, contributing over 58% to growth over the year to take the country’s resident population to 23,490,700people.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Demographics report, released last month, found that while all states had population increases from migration over the 12 months, some states saw drastic falls in the rate of growth.

Western Australia's migrant intake dropped by 40% or almost 20,000 people over the same period - on par with the Northern Territory (down 40% or 2000 people) and dropped further than the Australian Capital Territory (down by 700 people or 25%). Queensland's rate fell 24% with nearly 10,000 migrants coming to the state in the year to June.

New South Wales and Victoria continued to experience growth in net overseas migration, adding 6,300 people in NSW and 2,300 people in Victoria.

The University of Melbourne and the Australian National University are the top two universities in Australia and amongst the world’s best according to the latest annual QS World University Rankings by Subject.

The QS University Rankings is a comprehensive guide to the world’s top universities in a range of popular subject areas. The ranking is largely based on a survey of academics view of the reputation of the universities. To a lesser extent the rankings also takes into account other data like the number of times the university is cited in research publications and the student ratios.

The rankings highlight the 200 top universities in the world for 30 individual subjects.

The University of Melbourne demonstrated its consistency as Australia’s best by once again being named Australia’s best performing university. It was placed first nationally in 12 of the 30 disciplines.

According to a report in The Australian, Melbourne's best performance was in education, where it was named the second best faculty in the world, behind the University of London’s Institute of Education, up from third last year. Melbourne also took the crown as Australia’s most comprehensive university, named in the top five in 29 of the 30 disciplines. Melbourne was particularly strong in science, maths and technology subjects, ranking first nationally in eight of the 16 subject areas.