Australian Immigration Daily News

Australian Borderforce updated the critical skills list on the basis of which a travel exemption may be granted into Australia.

The Commissioner of the Australian Border Force may grant an individual exemption if an applicant is a non-citizen:

• travelling at the invitation of the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority for the purpose of assisting in the COVID-19 response
• providing critical or specialist medical services, including air ambulance, medical evacuations and delivering critical medical supplies
• with critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services (such as in medical technology, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, engineering and mining, supply chain logistics, agricultural technology, food production, and the maritime industry)
• delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery (such as financial technology, large scale manufacturing, film and television production and emerging technology), where no Australian worker is available
• whose entry would otherwise be in Australia's national interest, supported by the Australian Government or a state or territory government authority.

An individual can submit a request for a travel exemption under this category or a business can submit a request on their behalf. The applications of multiple travellers within the same group/business can be linked, so that the requests are considered together.

Due to the current COVID-19 situation, Victorian Medical Centres will be closing. No new bookings are being accepted in Victoria. New bookings will become available once restrictions are eased by the Victorian Government.

For visa applicants with existing bookings in Victorian Centres, you will be notified shortly that your appointment has been cancelled and will need to be rescheduled once restrictions are eased and services recommence. No action is required from those who have already made an appointment.

The Department of Home Affairs will be able to issue extensions to complete medical examinations as appropriate.

A 46-year-old Finnish man will be liable for removal from Australia after downloading and distributing thousands of disturbing child exploitation material from mobile phones while in immigration detention. Mr Tapani Henrik Hakkinen was already a serial offender when he pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material in the Brisbane District Court yesterday (6 August 2020).

The discovery of over 5,855 images and 222 videos on mobile phones, was made at the Brisbane Immigration Detention Centre. Mr Hakkinen was interviewed and charged by Queensland Police, who also seized his mobile phones. Mr Haikkinen had only been in immigration detention for approximately 4 months, after serving 21 months in jail for previous child exploitation material offences.

Detention Operations Commander Graeme Grosse said this is a perfect example of the need for the Prohibiting Items Bill currently before Parliament.

The following email update has been received from the Office of the MARA this morning:

"Following our recent quarterly meeting in which we discussed the upcoming removal of practising certificate (PC) holders from the OMARA regulation, please find below statistics on the current numbers of PC holders in each state and territory for your information. 

Please note work has not yet taken place to identify the home state of the registered agents offshore or identifying those PC holders with a restricted PC, however this gives you an overview of the numbers we are working with.