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Is that a light at the end of the tunnel?
The announcement by the Hon. Senator Michaelia Cash that there will be an independent review of the OMARA is timely given the five year gestation period on the campaign being run by Migration Alliance through the persistent lobbying efforts of Liana Allan.
It is great to have a government in place that is actually interested in engaging with members of the public, this profession and which hears and responds to stakeholder concerns. My experience of the former government was that they weren't interested, and any suggestions were sent to DIBP to be smothered at birth.
As far as I'm concerned, the timing could not be better as I laboured my way through the simplified online registration process on the OMARA web-portal.
From it's inception the MARA in all of it's incarnations including the self-regulated model administered by the MIA, has comprehensively defaulted into a complex, unregulated and largely unresponsive "Authority".
The default to complexity for an entity set up to register and regulate RMAs could on one view be an outstanding success. Having regard to the evidence which shows a highly compliant profession. The spending of registration fees in excess of $5 million per annum to regulate 5,000 plus RMAs is monumental overkill for an organisation that can identify, on average about 12 persons who are not 'fit and proper persons'.
The taking up of high rent premises with views of Hyde Park in Sydney and the huge salary bill all point to an organisation that honestly believes it is delivering acceptable outcomes all under the broad umbrella of consumer protection.
I believe that there is a need for a regulator but that it must be independent and not staffed with officers of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) who simply do not have the expertise to regulate the profession. The case for an independent regulator also excludes the inherent conflict of interest of having a membership organisation regulate and sanction it's own members.
I think that the self-regulation experiment which saw the MIA do the dirty work is deeply unsatisfactory because it creates a perception of bias. The idea of "Chinese Walls" or "Two Hats" has no place in this regulatory regime.
It must be independent, it must be robust and it must not act at the direction of DIBP, membership organisations, corporates or consumer advocates.
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but there is still a lot of heavy lifting to do. I am thrilled and delighted to see this initiative by the current government.
Finally, one word to Liana, "Thanks".
As you are all aware, the next big issue as far as MA is concerned is the elminination of unregistered practice through amendments to the statutory scheme.
Comments
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Wednesday, 25 June 2014the time and effort you have put into this is beyond any individual's reach, is admirable and inspiring, and is the shine of true leadership. We real appreciate the task you are taking which could reshape the public opinion about migration industry. Thank you!
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Wednesday, 25 June 2014
The issues confronting the review would be"
Cost of regulating 4000 agents
perceived Conflict of Interest
The outcome of current OMARA functions
Framework for a new Independent regulatory body
We have to make sure we are not jumping from frying pan into the fire. How independent can a regulatory body be. Enforcement regulations mean power and power attracts vultures and vested interests. It could breed elitism as we saw with MIA-MARA with vested interest groups raping their power. The MIA Board put forward their China Wall theory that none of bought. We knew what was happening behind closed doors, it was all about money and power.
The new body, if one were to come about, should be staffed by people who understands principles of natural justice, procedural fairness, deep knowledge of how Migration Agents function, etc. It should not be just a collection of individual who are not trained in procedural matters of investigation. -
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
How can DIBP staff be employed in Professional Standards ? Surely a conflict of interest ??? ...all staff should be from outside the department . ATO and Centrelink staff are much more accountable and and better quality as these two departments have a culture of quality and accountability in contrast to the fools I deal with on a daily basis in the offices of DIBP .
Last week a case officer I worked with in Parramatta was so incompetent she could only survive in DIBP .....No doubt this case officer will be applying for and getting the next advertised Job in OMARA . -
Thursday, 26 June 2014
Almost every week I'm pulling my hair out on some CO's request that is best described as utterly idiotic (not applicable to the many very decent and experienced ones out there), not even coming from differing interpretations of the legislation but matters so annoying like deliberately requesting a SCANNED copy of a document to be "certified", or insisting on the English translation of a multilingual document where one of the languages is English. I do not guess these CO's training to be any longer that 3-4 weeks at best, and the idea that they might be sitting at a DIBP run authority that makes judgement calls on MY professional integrity is simply abhorrent. BIG fan of an independent regulator for all of the before mentioned reasons, and also for the hope that this way the CO-s might also be accountable for their actions some day, and judgement on professionalism and integrity will not be so one-sided as it clearly is now.
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Friday, 27 June 2014
Thank you Liana and Christopher
Immigration blog
Congratulation Liana and Christopher! your seeds have its fruitfulness not only for RMAs but for MARA.