Australian Immigration Daily News

Overview of the Disallowable Legislative Instrument

The Immigration (Education) Act 1971 provides for publicly-funded tuition in approved English courses to eligible migrants who do not have vocational English. This is delivered through the Australian Government’s Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP). The AMEP helps new migrants learn English skills that will assist them to successfully and confidently participate socially and economically in Australian society. The AMEP is available to all eligible permanent visa holders, and current citizens who previously held a permanent visa, aged 18 years or over who do not have a vocational level of English language proficiency. Some visa holders aged 15 to 17 may also be eligible in some locations where intensive English classes in high schools are not available. Access is also extended to some temporary visa holders as specified in the legislative instrument for this purpose.

The purpose of this Disallowable Legislative Instrument is to amend the Immigration (Education) (Specification of temporary visas) Instrument (LIN 21/013) 2021 (LIN 21/013) to add the Temporary Safe Haven (Class UJ), Subclass 449 (Humanitarian Stay (Temporary)) visa to the specified classes of temporary visas that a person must hold, or have applied for, to be eligible for the provision of English language tuition under the AMEP.

The Subclass 449 (Humanitarian Stay (Temporary)) visa is being added to support the Government’s efforts to provide urgent settlement assistance to those entering Australia from Afghanistan, many of whom have been or are expected to be granted this visa, by providing them with access to English language tuition under the AMEP.

Source: LIN21070.pdf and LIN21070-Explanatory-Statement.pdf

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alex Hawke MP, has introduced additional flexibility to recognise the unique difficulties faced by some of our most distinguished applicants for citizenship.

“Australian citizenship is a rare privilege and it should not come easy. Those who apply must meet a range of character, values and language requirements. They must also have lived in Australia for a minimum period to be eligible,” Minister Hawke said.

“However, the unique work and travel demands on some of our most highly distinguished prospective Australians should not preclude them from making the cut. That’s why I have directed the Department of Home Affairs to apply greater flexibility in applying the residence requirement for eligible people,” he said.

 Source: Increased-flexibility-for-citizenship-applicants.pdf

The following email has been received today from the State Government of Victoria:

Victoria’s provisional Investor stream (188B) and provisional Significant Investor stream (188C) visa nomination programs for 2021-22 are now open. 

The major changes to the 2021-22 program are:

Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews said all Australians looked forward to once more welcoming international travellers across the border, and that the Government was taking proactive steps to ensure the safe reopening of the border at scale when supported by health advice.

“The DPD will support the safe re-opening of Australia’s international borders, by providing digitally-verified COVID-19 vaccination details,” Minister Andrews said.

“This will help us to welcome home increasing numbers of Australians, and welcome the tourists, travellers, international students, skilled workers, and overseas friends and family we’ve all been missing during the pandemic.”

Source: New-Digital-Platform.pdf

Operation Dreadnought uncovered evidence that a former Australian Border Force (ABF) officer engaged in corrupt conduct by providing sensitive operational information to an associate which assisted a drug importation syndicate.

In her report, the Integrity Commissioner makes a number of corruption prevention considerations including the role of social capital, which needs to be assessed in terms of internal and external relationships, and information security and controls.

On 18 August 2020, the former ABF officer plead guilty to one charge of abuse of public office under section 142.2 of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth).