I have commissioned an advice from Senior Counsel and have now been tasked with finding the perfect Group 5 candidate for foreshadowed legal action.

I am requesting that the word go out for a candidate who is as close to perfect as against the following:

1.  The candidate applied more than 5 years ago.

Under the 457 visa program over the last year, 104,780 foreign skilled workers were hired. This is less than 1 per cent of Australia’s workforce of some 11.5 million. Despite the small proportion of foreign workers in the workforce, the Labor party is once again ramping up warning of ‘rorts’ in the program and claiming that it undermines jobs and wages in Australia.

The number of people on the 457 skilled worker visa fell to 104,780 at the end of May, down 6.3 per cent since last July, according to DIBP statistics reported recently in The Australian.

Given this, the government as well as the Migration Council of Australia (MCA) says that the program is working as it should: “The 457 program is performing well and the measures to tighten regulation and compliance are working,” said MCA chief executive Carla Wilshire.

 “While there will always be a small portion of employers who do the wrong thing, the continued focus on rorts in the 457 program is disproportionate. By and large, this program works well and serves Australia’s interests well” she said.

Latest DIBP figures revealed in The Australian indicate that the number of employers sanctioned over the year was higher, at 15 per cent. But the government said the sanctions include ‘minor ­administrative problems’. The government targeted some 4000 sponsors over the year but only issued about 40 infringement notices.

It has been over a year since the department of immigration signed an MOU to include Greece in the work and holiday visa (SC462) program. However, the implementation of the program has stalled for some unkown reason.

DIBP is clearly having some issues with some countries in finalising the work and holiday program. A note on the DIBP website states as follows: “The Work and Holiday arrangement with…Vietnam, Israel, Greece and Papua New Guinea will not come in to effect until start dates have been agreed.”

It’s been over a year since Australia and Greece signed an MOU to allow 500 visas to be made available under the sc462 work and holiday visa programme.  Under the program young people aged 18 to 30 from Greece would be eligible to apply for the sc462 visa with similar arrangements for young Australian to work in Greece.

DIBP has provided no explanation for the delay in the implementation of the program which normaly takes about 6 months from the signing of the MOU to come into effect.

Perhaps the estimated A$480 billion Greek debt has got something to do with it. Things are so bad in Greece that some media reports state the people cannot withdraw more than 300Euros a day from Greek banks to prevent a run on the banks. Furthermore, it would seem unlikely that the Greek public would accept any government move to allow foreigners – even if its just 500 – to come work in a struggling economy.

Did you know that your clients could be losing up to 5% of the value of their money when making an international money transfer to Australia?

For a client transferring £100,000 from the UK it can equate up to £5,000 (A$10,000) of their savings being lost in poor conversions rates offered from their bank.

An alternative solution to avoid such losses is to use a regulated foreign exchange company.

Union leaders have been dumped from the Coalition government's skilled migration advisory panel in an effort to stop the “rabid debate” about foreign worker exploitation.

The Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration (MACSM) has had a major overhaul with three union leaders dumped from the panel which advises the government “on visa and policy settings to optimise the contribution of skilled migration to Australia’s productivity and economy.” Only a single union representative now remains in the panel.

Heading the panel will be Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox who called for an end to the "rabid debate" over the alleged exploitation of foreign workers after being appointed to head the Abbott government's advisory panel on skilled migration.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Willox said the previous council became bogged down in a "quite a destructive discussion" about 457 visa workers.

"We need to shift the debate," he said. "We had a rabid debate through 2012-13 on the whole issue of skilled migration and we need to shift the agenda a bit to have a holistic view around skilled migration's role in the overall skills mix, how it fits in with the training agenda and what the needs of business are, both in the short and long term," he said.

Mr Willox said he believed there were adequate safeguards currently to ensure any abuse of foreign workers could be detected and acted upon.