The school which generated about $1million in revenue per year from students was found to have had extensive breaches of regulations governing overseas students, according to a report on the ABC.

It remains unclear what will happen to the visas of 70 students of the school - some who reportedly paid $18,600 per year in tuition fees.

According to the ABC, documents filed with Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), indicated the failure of some students to sign in for classes for weeks at a time was not investigated by the school, despite visa requirements that stipulate they must sign in twice a day. It said that the teaching of English language was also a particular concern, with audits from 2010 to 2014 revealing the school failing to comply with VCAA standards.

The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) ordered the Melbourne Senior Secondary College (MSSC) to shut down because it failed to comply with a number of matters in the Education Services for Overseas Students Act which included the following:

•Inadequate records on working with children checks for adults overseeing, living with up to 14 students under 18

Article for submission to the Migration Alliance Newsletter

 Working in partnership to combat human trafficking and slavery in Australia

Australian Federal Police

We are all familiar with the old saying that: “We are haunted by the ghosts of our past”. 

This well-worn phrase has been shown to have considerable truth and force recently. There has been story after story in the news media about high profile people being caught up in allegations of sexual abuse involving decades-old incidents. One need look no further than the stories that have been reported about allegations relating to former British Prime Minister Ted Heath and to the television performers Rolf Harris and Bill Cosby. And of course the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has unearthed accounts of incidents that occurred many years ago. 

These types of stories are not only pervasive in the news media. In fact, just at the end of last week, on 7 August 2015, a decision was handed down by the Federal Court of Australia that demonstrates, very powerfully, that there really is no escape from the ghosts of one’s past where sexual offences are concerned, and that events that may have seemed to have been buried and forgotten can come back to haunt a person with an absolute vengeance! 

The peak body of the restaurant and catering industry says it has struck a special deal with the government to make it easier to bring in overseas workers through the 457 skilled migration visa program.

The sector is currently experiencing a shortfall of 56,000 workers with Chefs, cooks and restaurant managers among the most difficult vacancies to fill, according to statement released by Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA). The R&CA is the industry’s peak body that representing some 35,000 restaurants and catering businesses across Australia.

The statement says that employment growth in the cafe, restaurant and takeaway food services sector will require an additional 43,700 jobs by November 2018. The rate of employment growth in this sector is expected to be higher than any other sector in the Australian economy, growing at around 8.5 per cent.

To deal with the ‘chronic labour shortage’ the labour agreement will lower the temporary skilled migration income threshold (TSMIT) by 10 per cent for restaurants that meet specific criteria.

At the end of July 2015 I wrote an article titled 'Refuse, refuse, refuse:  457 nominations and visas refused'.

The DIBP kindly responded to my tweets on the above article, stating that DIBP approval rates sat at over 90%. 

Mistakenly, I should have cited the 'most-popularly-refused' occupation, and asked for the approval/refusal-rate for that particular occupation.  That 'popularly refused' occupation is none other than Customer Service Manager.