Message just in from Skilled and Business Migration Program, Trade and Industry Development, Department of State Development, Business and Innovation
Melbourne, Victoria:

The Live in Victoria website is in the process of undertaking a major technology upgrade. This will result in a more efficient and reliable service.

This upgrade will require us to take offline the systems for submitting and processing applications for State visa nomination for up to one week.

Prime Minister Tony Abbot, has announced that the government will introduce a new “Premium Investor Visa” offering a faster 12 month pathway to permanent residency, for those meeting a A$15 million investment threshold.

The announcement was made with the release of the government’s National Industry Investment and Competitiveness Agenda which commits $400 million towards ‘industry growth centres’ and sets out a series of strategies that promote industry led growth.

Key changes in respect of migration reform, include having SIV prospects target their money at areas of priority to the Australian economy. Currently the SIV grants foreigners with $5 million to invest over four years a permanent visa.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the SIV will be altered to push money towards certain areas of the economy. These are likely to be the ‘growth centres’. The government has chosen to focus on five sectors for its growth centres: oil and gas, mining technology, medical technology and pharmaceuticals, food and agribusiness and advanced manufacturing, where it says Australia has a “natural advantage” it can build on.

The 457 visa program will also be reformed, with the process of sponsorship, nomination and visa applications for “low risk” applicants streamlined, English language requirements made more flexible, and the sponsorship approval period increased from 12 to 18 months for start-up businesses.

Updated versions of the M1, M2 and R1 ‘Application for review’ forms were released on 13 October 2014 (design date 10/14). The forms now provide applicants with an opportunity to elect to receive all case related correspondence from the tribunals via email. 

The previous version of these forms, released in March 2014 (design date 03/14), will continue to be accepted by the tribunals until 30 January 2015. 

Current application forms are available on the 'Forms' page of the tribunals’ website. Http://www.mrt-rrt.gov.au/Forms-and-publications/Forms.aspx

Australia’s continued shortage of experienced engineers risks delaying the slew of major projects coming on stream as state governments sell assets to invest in new infrastructure projects, reports The Australian Financial Review.

There are at least $18 billion worth of rail projects in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne which may be threatened if engineering firms cannot find enough engineers.Some of the major rail projects include Sydney’s $8.3-billion North West Rail Link, the $4.5 billion Inland Rail freight route linking Brisbane and Melbourne and the $5 billion Brisbane BAT tunnel project.

“Anecdotally, the skills shortage feels greater,” Transfield Services chief Graeme Hunt told The Australian Financial Review on Monday. “What is different this time is that across several states, Australia is moving into an unprecedented phase of asset sales to fund construction of overdue public infrastructure projects over the next 15 to 20 years.”

“If the work that’s promised comes online quickly, we will run into capability ­problems,” Consult Australia CEO Megan Motto told The AFR.

For Transfield, which focuses on maintaining and operating assets, as opposed to building them, the shortages of qualified civil, electrical and ­mechanical engineers are a concern.

“When you are operating and ­maintaining energy and tele­communications networks, roads and tunnels or large public facilities, those professions are very important...Employers needed the flexibility to employ foreign labour...This also underscores the need for ­flexibility in sourcing skilled foreign labour through programmes such as the 457 visa,” he said.

Perhaps that’s why the Labor leader has strongly declared himself a supporter of a “big Australia” population policy, setting it down as one of the markers he will adopt if he wins the next election. Bill Shorten told The Australian that immigration had been a great economic driver and he expected Australia’s population to grow at a faster rate than the world average.

Both key political camps in Australia have declared their support for immigration going against the recent rumblings of iconic entrepreneurs like Dick Smith and Flight Centre’s founder Graham Turner’s who have been campaigning that a “big Australia’ is unsustainable.

Their views are supported by a 2013 Galaxy poll of 1000 people for News Limited which found that the majority are overwhelmingly against a “Big Australia”, with 70 per cent hoping the population does not hit the 40 million mark projected by 2050.

Bill Shorten however says, “I don’t favour that bumper sticker which says ‘Go away, we’re full.” Mr Shorten says he is enthusiastic about a bigger population. “I’m a fan of immigration and what it’s done for this country,” he told The Australian, noting that there is a disproportionately high number of immigrants among entrepreneurs and tax­payers.

“The number presents itself. We’re going to have a natural birthrate and we’re going to have immigration. We’re going to keep growing, probably faster than the average for the rest of the world,” he said.

Kevin Rudd generated a political storm in 2010 when he endorsed a “big Australia” following projections in the government’s Intergenerational report that the population would reach 36 million by 2050. The then opposition leader Tony Abbott said he would cut immigration by about 130,000 people a year.