Australia’s productivity is steadily slipping down and will continue to do so if skilled migration numbers are not increased quickly.

The current migration intake of 190,000 a year is not enough to sustain productivity, says the Australian Industry Group (AIG). It says that Australia needs a steady increase in migration intake every year with an emphasis on skilled migration in order to meet current and future skills shortages.

The AIG has proposed that the Federal government needs to act immediately to substantially increase the immigration intake in the upcoming budget by at least 15% to 220,000 to meet the current skills shortage.

The AIG’s chief executive Innes Willox says now is the right time to accelerate skilled migration given Australia's ageing workforce and skills shortages in industries including mining, construction, engineering and health.

Minister’s visa cancellation decision is deemed too severe and is set aside by the AAT.

In October 2013, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison ruled that Sean Gabriel did not pass the character test and decided to cancel his visa, due to his part in the 2008 violent attack and robbery on Dr Mukesh Haikerwal and four others. Gabriel was sentenced to a 7 year prison term for the attack which the courts stated were, "very serious, involving senseless extreme ­violence against totally innocent and defenceless victims".

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia (AAT) has however set aside the Minister’s decision. The Tribunal held that Gabriel has a low to moderate chance of reoffending; he would have trouble resettling in his birthplace New Zealand which he had left at the age 10; and the Tribunal also referred to the Victorian Court of Appeal’s following considerations:

“There are a number of considerations which underlie the general primacy of an offender’s youth as a sentencing consideration. Firstly, young offenders being immature are therefore ‘more prone to ill-considered or rash decisions’. They ‘may lack the degree of insight, judgment and self-control that is possessed by an adult’. They may not fully appreciate the nature, seriousness and consequences of their criminal conduct.

DIBP officer sacked for tweeting opinions on immigration policy.

Victorians may have recently noticed Ambulances carrying the slogan, “Highest trained, lowest paid” prominently scribbled across their vehicles as they whizzed past with their sirens ablaze. It’s an apparent display of freedom of expression under industrial action which no one has fussed about.

But for a DIBP officer tweeting anonymously in her own time to express personal opinions on immigration policy: it led to a sacking. Apparently sacked for a breach of the employment contract and the Australian Public Service’s Code of Conduct.

This is the plight of Ms Michaela Banerji, the DIBP officer in the middle of the saga. Her plight and fight has spawned a public debate on the limits of freedom of expression in Australia.

Migration Alliance is in receipt of the following email from the DIBP.  Please note that the letter on the s499 Direction to Agents doc is at the base of this email below:

Dear Registered Migration Agent 

The $18 billion a year road freight industry may be crippled if the skills shortage is not addressed soon, says the ATA.

The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has appealed to the federal government to allow foreign drivers to cover the shortage of skilled truck drivers.

In a submission to the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, which provides advice to the government on how to tackle skill shortages, the ATA asked that heavy vehicle driving be added to the list.