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Immigration Daily News Liana Allan suggests that Migration Alliance and the MIA join forcesAustralian Immigration Daily News
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Liana Allan suggests that Migration Alliance and the MIA join forces
Following the Migration Institute of Australia’s (MIA) EGM ‘wipe out’ on Friday afternoon, 8 September at 4pm in Sydney, the National President of the MIA suddenly resigned on Sunday 10 September.
Some of you may recall that I resigned from the Migration Alliance Committee a few months back without providing an explanation. I would now like to provide that explanation, put forward a few of my insights and ideas, and then offer a proposal for the way forward.
My resignation from the MA committee
I resigned from the Migration Alliance committee for two reasons.
The first reason was that I was being intimidated by Mary-Jane Jones, the then State Director of the ACT/NSW of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) for my association with Migration Alliance, and that by association with Migration Alliance, the DIBP would not engage with me.
Ms Jones also made it quite clear to me on a telephone call that the DIBP would not send in speakers to Legal Training Australia (LTA) CPD events whilst I had an association with Migration Alliance. Ms Jones was disparaging of Migration Alliance, in particular that Migration Alliance would publish offensive and negative commentary on its blog.
Ms Jones said that she would not send DIBP staff to LTA events whilst it still had association with Migration Alliance, as she feared for her staff’s safety. I did try to explain to her that MIA members are also Migration Alliance members and that there is a large overlap of dual members. I therefore questioned her reasoning behind the DIBP's attendance at MIA's events.
I also found it odd that a Senator for NSW could attend our events, and also the Head of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), but not staff of the DIBP. Not once in the history of Migration Alliance has there been a safety issue at any of our CPD events or conference.
I think that the explanation given by Ms Jones does not stack up.
Nevertheless, in order to get access to DIBP speakers for CPD purposes, I agreed on the phone, and subsequently in writing that I would resign from the Committee. One word springs to mind. Duress. Documents gathered under FOI from the DIBP tell a more sinister story, akin to boycott of Migration Alliance, files on me and other Committee members of MA, and directions through to DIBP management from the top down, not to deal with Migration Alliance. Why? Probably because we are not lap dogs to the DIBP.
I also questioned why the DIBP wasn't running free information roadshows for the migration advice profession, rather than forcing agents to pay the MIA to access government information.
The second reason I resigned from Migration Alliance’s committee was because I made an application for the recently advertised position of CEO at the MIA. I did not want there to be a conflict of interest when I applied, by being on the Board of a competing membership association in the same profession.
I applied. I was invited to an interview by the MIA’s professional recruiter. I attended an interview, which lasted approximately an hour. In the interview I made it abundantly clear that my reason for applying was to fuse the two associations (MIA and MA) to create one peak professional association. I explained about the history of bad blood between the two organisations and my experience at successfully running LTA. I explained that I had founded and have been running MA. In my opinion, I am more than skilled and qualified for the position, and would need to take a pay cut to achieve my objective; become the position of CEO and merge the MIA and MA. The recruiter said he would call Angela Julian Armitage that afternoon to let her know that he had interviewed me and then let me know whether the board would consider me for the position. He rang. Angela said no. He called me. End of story. It went nowhere. I was shut out.
MIA's EGM last week
Angela Julian-Armitage motioned to me to come to over to her outside the meeting room of the MIA's EGM on Friday afternoon at around 3:50pm.
She said, 'why are you doing this to me?'.
I said, 'the profession needs help'.
She responded with, 'I am having an Aston Martin delivered tomorrow. Do you really think I need this sh*t?'.
I said, "Angela you really could have accepted my application for the position of CEO".
Angela responded, "You didn't even apply properly'.
I was so stunned I did not reply but walked off.
I went into the EGM meeting room but was ejected from the room as I was not a MIA member. I was also not allowed to be an observer.
Insights and Ideas
My hope is that the profession can join together as one.
My plan is to galvanise the joint members of the MIA and the MA and initiate an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in the coming weeks. Proxies will be sought for the required 100 member votes.
The aim of the EGM will be to dispense of the current board of the MIA through a ‘vote of no confidence’ motion. Other motions will also be put to the membership, such as allowing me to join the MIA as a member. Whilst he was the Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Lane wrote to me advising me that my application to join the MIA had been refused, but with no explanation.
What has become clear is that Migration Alliance and our proxies were the primary reason that all four of the MIA’s recent motions were defeated. Other MIA members carried their own proxies in line with ours, voting down the motions.
The way forward for the migration advice profession
Given it is now clear that Migration Alliance is in the hearts and minds of the voting members of the MIA, may I suggest that NOW is a good time for the two organisations to join forces, one way or another? The current Migration Alliance committee fully support my proposal of fusing the MIA and the MA.
I would appreciate comments and feedback.
In Good Faith
Liana Allan
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Comments
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Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Anyone who uses the blog to label / name-call or denigrate a person will not have their comments published. There is a big difference between facts of the matter versus calling people names from an alias.
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Tuesday, 12 September 2017Aston Martin, uh, why not a Roller? Useless parasites
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Tuesday, 12 September 2017
It is very amusing to read about all the politics in your profession. One thought: sometimes it's better for the greater good to have two bodies competing against each other, keeping each other awake, aware and forthcoming rather than having one lazy body where everybody's happy. Like Democrats and Republicans. Of course I cannot judge if this is the case here. Anyway you have our vote.
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Tuesday, 12 September 2017
I say we need a fresh start... new blood. There may be a few politicians looking for jobs once the High Court rules on s44 - we love multiculturalism in the migration world! But seriously, I don't love the MIA and agree that the business is a little pretentious and unwelcoming. This often happens when the same people sit on committees for years on end pushing their own agendas.
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Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Liana,
Earlier today I posted my comments as to why MA did not challenge DIBP discriminatory treatment of MA and should it not been taken up right to the Minister's level . There must have been an oversight in the omission.. I also mentioned until this is resolved with DIBP any merger may not work. -
Tuesday, 12 September 2017
The MIA forum is where Registered Migration Agents can share professional experiences. A public forum like the MA is not the place for these. This is why Liana doesnt have a clue about how to act for the profession. The MA forum is where the public can have their say. Very different purposes.
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Wednesday, 13 September 2017
No one has mentioned the absolutely useless Practice Ready Program that MIA have a virtual monopoly on. You might as well flush the $2K or so that they charge down the toilet because that's all it's worth! Just a rehash of sections of the Grad Cert. Do the math. $2K X 30 on each course. No wonder they swan around in Aston's. Then they give out awards to their mates so they all feel warm and fuzzy. I'm much prouder having my Mirror Maze Master from Luna Park taking pride of place on my office wall.
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Wednesday, 13 September 2017
At least Liana is open, transparent and honest and doesn't hide what's going on. At least she has guts to stand up and push for stuff. We might not agree with everything she does, but at least she is a leader in this profession and we can at least rely on her to stand up for us.
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Wednesday, 13 September 2017
She said, 'why are you doing this to me?'.
Looks like Angela has considered that to vote for the motions are personal matter. -
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
As a Member of MA, it is extremely concerning to hear of the break down of relations with DIBP. What is MA doing to restore the close liaison necessary with political leaders and The Department for MA to do any effective work on behalf of its membership???????
First priority must be for MA to become more effective in representation of membership of the profession -
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
It's not a breakdown in political relations. MA had the senator to their event. It is a breakdown where the DIBP boycotts migratin alliance because migration alliance doesn't sing the DIBP's praises and do what it tells it to do (eg MA complains when there is a problem),whereby MIA doesn't.
Liana stepped aside, as I read it, to ensure we all got access to DIBP staff at CPD events (lower price than MIA events), by cutting herself off from MA. She basically seems to have sacrified herself for us all to get access to speakers, because Mary Jane Jones didn't like MA editors posting up negative commentary. We need to be able to voice our concerns and complain about unfair practices.
It is like DIBP will veto any organisation who does not agree with it. Compliant or boycott.
The way I read this is that Liana tried to take a fall for us all, so that we could get DIBP speakers to talk to us without having to pay high fees to see them via the MIA. -
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
James Brown in my recent posting I did draw attention to the flawed monopolistic arrangement of the Practice Ready Arrangement . I digested this arrangement should be diversified . IT should be made into an internship arrangement for at least several months, not one day practice. What could a new grandaunt learn in one day.
MA should firstly iron out with DIBP for its discriminatory treatment of MA. This should be taken at the OMBUDSMAN or Ministerial level if the Department's victimization is not sorted out for the reputation and benefit of all MA members.
Secondly Liana and Christopher has to challenge MI as to the grounds of the refusal of MIA membership. This are fundamental rights of the individual and the MA as an organisation. -
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Look, before people start saying Liana should not spread personal information from a personal conversation between her and Angela Julian Armitage on here, the fact is she said the exact same thing in the meeting in front of 20 MIA board members. Did any of them stick up for John Hourigan when she called him fat and degraded him for driving a commodore? Did anyone say anything in the room when she told EVERYONE at the EGM she was getting an Aston Martin?
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Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Dear Colleagues, I acknowledge several valid, critical points have been raised in this discussion and I am confident MA is listening with an mind. With due regards to the vastly diverse opinions shared here, my view on this matter is as follows:
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United we stand, divided we fall!
I suspect the divide and rule policy has been used well by the key stakeholder
For a free membership organisation, there is no doubt MA has done tremendous work and forced us to take a hard look at some of the critical issues. This discussion itself is one such example
Is everyone playing fair in this match? It is an arduous task to play fair if the referee decides to side with one team
Migration industry lacks the respect it deserves on account of unregistered practice being allowed despite numerous incidents of trusting clients taken for a royal ride over the years
Immigration blog
I also would support your suggestion as long as by the unification we can regain our voice in DIBP. However, without making war against DIBP, because certainly we will be the losers on this situation.