Australian Immigration Daily News

Life is full of ironies, so why should politics be any different?

So then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that yesterday, 21 March 2017, a day that was proclaimed as “Harmony Day” by the Australian Government, a day intended, according to the government’s own Harmony Day Website, to promote “inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone”, the Turnbull Government announced proposed changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to loosen restrictions against hate speech.

As currently in force, section 18C, which is headed: “Offensive behavior because or race, colour or national or ethnic origin” makes it unlawful for a person to do an act “otherwise than in private” (in other words, in public) that is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people, and is done because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group.

Is there something rotten in the state of Denmark?

Or to put the question in contemporary and migration terms, is the existing framework for assessing non-judicially determined claims of family violence flawed?

Is it fair? Is it just?

The Migration Alliance has received a concerning report from a Registered Migration Agent in Western Australia about apparent actions by the Western Australian government in relation to the Regional Sponsored Migration scheme.

We are informed by our colleague in WA that the new premier of WA, Mark McGowan, had stated during the recent election campaign that he would seek to have Perth “removed” from the scheme.

And indeed, a news article in the West Australian reports that Premier McGowan asked Prime Minister Turnbull to remove Perth from the RSMS scheme within hours of his election victory on Saturday 11 March 2017. The West Australian says that the purpose of this request was “to make it easier for locals to find work”.

How can you tell if a position that has been nominated by a Standard Business Sponsor is “genuine”, and thus meets the test for approval specified in sub-regulation 2.72(10)(f)?

This is an issue that seems to plague all too many efforts by employers to sponsor overseas employees for temporary skilled employment, isn’t it?

Especially so, again it seems, when the position that is nominated is that of “Sales and Marketing Manager”.

I find it hard to believe that nearly a quarter of 2017 is already behind us, but it’s true to say that one of the hottest topics occupying the international and Australian media over the first few months of this year has been immigration, an issue which is of course close to my heart.

Much of that commentary has been sparked by the unprecedented media furore around the inauguration and ensuing actions of new US President Donald Trump.

Throughout the course of his presidential campaign, Trump put issues of immigration high on the agenda, making the construction of a “wall” between the US and Mexico a core promise, and repeatedly raising the idea of banning or restricting Muslims from migrating to America.