Minister expects Australian migration changes
5 November, 2008

Australia's immigration minister says it is likely the migration rate will change as a result of the global economic crisis.
Minister Chris Evans met industry leaders is Perth today to discuss future migration needs.
The minister says he will be further investigating a state by state migration policy.
"I think it is true to say that we have a number of different economies inside Australia," he said.
Western Australia and Queensland were flagged as special cases that require more skilled workers as a result of their mining booms.
The minister also plans to change the migration policy to give preference to workers sponsored by businesses, but the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry is concerned that this would only attract skilled workers when there is also a shortage of unskilled labour.
Changes to the migration rate are expected in the near future.

- ABC

Do not reduce migrant intake, engineers warn
29 October, 2008

Australia rethinks Snoop Dogg visa approval
27 August, 2008

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia is re-thinking a decision to give gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg a visa after public complaints that he should not tour in October in a double act with Ice Cube, an immigration official said on Tuesday.
Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr., was refused permission to even apply for a visa to enter Australia in 2007 because of his criminal record, sinking plans for him to co-host the MTV Australia Video Music Awards.
But immigration officials this week cleared the way for an October tour visit, until a spate of public complaints from Australian victims of crime groups on Tuesday.
"As a result of public concern and interest, the department has decided that in fact we will be undertaking a more thorough assessment of Mr Broadus' character," a senior immigration official told Reuters.
The decision does not mean Snoop Dogg will again be barred from Australia, but he could be counseled before arrival and given strict behavior rules to abide by while in the country.
Snoop Dogg was first barred by Australia's former conservative government, which lost power last year to the centre-left Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Labor has steadily softened tough immigration laws while in power.
Critics say Snoop Dogg's lyrics are racist and sexist. The rapper has sold over 17 million records.
His criminal record counts several drugs and firearms charges since 1990, including a 1993 acquittal for murder. He has also been denied entry to Britain.
After learning of a change of heart by officials on barring the controversial rapper, Australian victims of crime groups complained to the government to have the decision overturned.
"Snoop Dogg trades in toxic messages of menace, violence, misogyny and lawlessness," Angela Conway, of the Australian Family Association, told the Herald Sun newspaper.
The immigration official said a fresh assessment of an approval for Snoop Dogg to apply for a visa -- clearing the way for a 17-day visit from October 21 -- had already begun.
"We've advised his tour promoter and he and Mr Broadus will have an opportunity to respond. We clearly will look at his criminal history," he said.

- Rob Taylor, Reuters

Immigrants boost Australian economy
22 August, 2008

THE record immigration intake is delivering major economic benefits, according to research to be released today by Immigration Minister Chris Evans.
As the Rudd Government seeks to maintain community support for the highest immigration intake since the 1960s, Senator Evans will release Access Economics modelling that "dispels the myth that new migrants impose a huge impost on the taxpayer".
The modelling comes as the Government expands its temporary worker scheme to take in up to 2500 horticulture workers from four Pacific nations -- a move opposed by Brendan Nelson, who argues that unemployed Australians could take on the fruit-picking jobs.
The modelling shows the immigration intake of more than 171,000 in 2007-08 will result in an economic benefit of $610million in the first year, $965 million in the second year and a massive $1.5 billion after the migrants have spent 20 years in Australia.
The 2008-09 program, forecast at 203,000 places, is modelled to represent an even bigger bonus of $829 million in the first year and $1.8 billion by year 20.
The immigration program increased under the Howard government but has been boosted further by the Rudd Government as it seeks to fill labour shortages.

- Lenore Taylor, The Age

Govt defends reunion, refugee programs
22 August, 2008

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has defended the government's family reunion and refugee immigration program, despite a new study showing they impose an overall cost on the economy.
The study, by consultants Access Economics, to be released on Friday, has found that while migrants generally produce significant economic benefits two categories impose a cost - family reunions and refugees.
However, Senator Evans said Australia was a society not just an economy.
"The family reunion stream is very important to people coming to the country," he told ABC radio.
"Increasingly it is one of the factors people take into account when they are looking at whether to migrate or not is whether they have the opportunity for family reunion.
"It is actually a strong benefit in terms of attracting good people to this country."
Senator Evans agreed humanitarian entrants were an initial cost to the economy.
"But they make a contribution over the longer terms and it is part of our responsibilities as a nation to assist those in need," he said.
The study models the costs and benefits of the migration program covering the period 2006-07.
It found that in their first year, migrants added $500 million to the budget bottom line with the greatest contribution from those with desired skills, found to have good English language, high incomes and above average employment rates.
Senator Evans rejected claims the skilled migrant intake could be cut back as the economy slowed and unemployment rose.
"It's a case for making sure we are targeting the right skills and they are going to the right regions," he said.
"It has been very much part of my approach to make sure that we recognised that we have a series of different labour markets in Australia and that, for instance, the migration coming into this country ought to be going to meet the skills needs of the economy in the areas where we need them."
Senator Evans said it was reasonable to consider the impact of population on the environment.
"But with an ageing population, if we don't have strong migration programs, we won't have the workforce to support the baby boomers in their retirement."
- aap

457 visas being processed faster: Evans
21 August, 2008

Temporary visa applications to Australia are being processed faster and more efficiently since the setting up of three dedicated centres, Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans says.
Accountants had called for restrictions on work visas to be eased to cope with demand in their profession.
However, Senator Evans said 81 per cent of all 457 visa holders were being employed in professional occupations and highly skilled jobs, including accounting.
"Earlier this year, I directed the department to clear a backlog of about 13,000 temporary skilled migration visa applications on hand since March, many of which were outside the acceptable standards for processing," Senator Evans said.
"Applications for temporary skilled visas are now being processed faster and more efficiently at three new dedicated Centres of Excellence established in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne to deal with increasing demand by Australian companies for overseas workers to meet skills shortages."
Immigration department data released last month shows that 110,570 visas were granted to temporary skilled workers and their dependents in 2007-08, up from 87,310 in 2006-07.
Senator Evans noted that accountancy was the top occupation for the permanent skilled migration program - averaging 9,000 to 10,000 places each year for the past three years.
Specialist recruitment firm Select Accountancy said it was crucial that 457 visa restrictions be eased to cope with demand for accountants and finance professionals.
Select general manager Asia Pacific Suzanne Boyd said employers were being forced to look abroad to fill positions, often left vacant as local talent was lured overseas where there is also a shortage of accounting and finance professionals.
"Employers in Australia have to cast a wider net to bring talent in - or back in - to the country," she said.
Smaller regional and suburban accounting firms were bearing the brunt of these skill shortages more than their multi-national counterparts, she said.
"A collective effort to attract and retain talent, particularly accounting and finance professionals in Australia, will help all employers and take some much needed pressure off the sector," she said.
High demand for accountants and a low supply of graduates is taking its toll on the industry.
The shortage is having a negative impact on 64 per cent of the profession with increased workload and stress the biggest impact on employees, according to the 2008 Vedior Asia Pacific employment trends survey.
More than 80 per cent of employers in the accounting and finance sector now use head hunting to find suitable people in a very tight talent pool.
The practice, once reserved for senior executives, is being used to source junior and mid-level staff.
- theage.com.au

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will tomorrow unveil a plan to allow season workers into the country in an effort to ease a labor shortage estimated to leave millions of dollars of produce rotting in farmers' fields.
Australia will follow New Zealand in the three-year pilot program, which will see some 2,500 visas being granted to workers from Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to work in the fruit and vegetable industry for as long as seven months a year, the government said in a statement. Rudd will present the plan tomorrow when he attends the Pacific Islands summit.
Some A$700 million ($611 million) of fresh produce, including tomatoes and grapes, is left to rot because of a shortage of about 100,000 Australian horticulture workers, according to the government. The nation's 17 years of economic expansion has seen the jobless rate fall to a three-decade low.
``Domestic manpower cannot fill our labor needs,'' National Farmers Federation President David Crombie said in a telephone interview in Canberra today. ``The solution is sourcing temporary migrants from nearby Pacific Islands so they can get new skills and training.''
Employers will only be able to employ Pacific workers after they have made ``reasonable efforts'' to find Australians, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said.
``Fresh Australian fruit and vegetables should be harvested for consumers to enjoy at home and overseas, not left in the field to go to waste,'' Burke said in an e-mailed statement. ``Pacific Island workers are not a cheap labor option. Employers will pay half of the return air fares, and cover establishment and pastoral care costs.''
Fruit, Vegetables
Australian horticulture is valued at about A$7 billion, according to the Farmers Federation. Exports, including fruit and vegetables, were worth A$950 million in 2007.
``We are finding it increasingly difficult to find workers and the product suffers,'' Ron Walker, who manages 120 hectares of orchards for Batlow Apples, which makes up 10 percent of Australian production, said from Tumut, 450 kilometers south-west of Sydney. ``This new scheme will make a huge difference for fruit and vegetable growers and for workers who want new skills.''
Rudd, 50, will also discuss the ``political and economic challenges'' across the region, climate change and restoring democracy in Fiji when he attends the Pacific Islands Forum in Niue, according to a statement on his Web Site.
Army chief Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, who appointed himself Fiji's prime minister after overthrowing the government in a bloodless military coup in December 2006, is under pressure to hold elections by March 2009.
Along with Fiji, Australia and New Zealand, the forum includes Tonga, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
- Gemma Daley, Bloomberg

The construction union claims to have negotiated a flyin, fly-out roster allowing hundreds of foreign tradesmen to return to their home countries every few weeks from the Pluto project in the North-West.
Secretary Kevin Reynolds claims that under the deal, up to 1000 foreign tradesmen would be able to fly home for one week after every five or six weeks on the job.
The move is a big departure from traditional FIFO rosters in which mine workers return to Perth, or in some cases to the east coast, during their rest and recreation breaks.
But the union’s power to insist on the extraordinary change comes after new laws were introduced by the Labor Government in which companies must negotiate international labour agreements with unions and other stakeholders, giving them the power to formally object to applications if they are not satisfied with the proposed wages and conditions.
Unions would also have the right to object if the company could not prove that it had attempted to get local workers to fill the jobs.
Any objections would be considered by the Immigration Department when deciding whether to approve the application for foreign workers.
Mr Reynolds said the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union had struck the deal with Woodside recently, though some final details of the labour agreement were still being negotiated and it was yet to be formally lodged with the Immigration Department.
Mr Reynolds said he did not want masses of foreign workers in Australia because he believed they undermined local training opportunities, but he said it was important to ensure foreign workers on four-year work visas had the same rights to a family life as local workers.
He claimed the cost of a return ticket to Asia would be similar to a flight to the east coast, denying the move was an attempt to price the foreign workers out of the market.
“We don’t see any difference in flying back to the Philippines or to Auckland or to Townsville or to Perth. We don’t want to end up with a situation where workers don’t see their families for four years,” Mr Reynolds said.
Mining giant Woodside would not confirm or deny Mr Reynolds’ claims before the labour agreement had been lodged with the Immigration Department. It is understood that the workers would be employed by Leighton and other contractors on the project. The mass influx of foreign workers on major resource projects is becoming a trend amid the continuing skills shortage. CITIC Mining said up to a quarter of its 250 workers at its operations at Cape Preston in the Pilbara were foreign, and it planned to import “hundreds” more tradesmen and professionals, mainly from China. A spokeswoman said it would not rule out a FIFO arrangement to China if it was necessary to find highquality workers.
- Kim Macdonald, Thewest.com.au

Pacific workers to help fruit crisis

Leighton wants skilled migration visa scheme widened

15 August, 2008
Australia's biggest project development group says the Federal Government's temporary skilled migration visa program should be extended to all classes of workers.
Leightons chief executive Wal King says the company has more than 500 employees on 457 visas.
He says the program is very effective in solving skills shortages.
But he says certain categories of workers, such as truck drivers, are not allowed to work in Australia under the scheme, even though they are desperately needed.
"The labour market should be completely opened up and by 457 programs right across the board, or certainly if not right across the board, down to areas that I would call semi-skilled such as truck drivers," he said.
Leightons has today posted a 35 per cent increase in after tax profit to $608 million for 2008.
Meanwhile, Mr King says he does not think Leightons will wear much of the cost of an emissions trading scheme.
He says the new mandatory reporting of its greenhouse gas emissions is costing Leightons $6 million a year.
Mr King says when the emissions scheme is introduced the company will be passing on the costs to consumers, mining companies and other parties.
"We're a services company, we don't believe there'll be any significant impact on the company but there will be an impact on the Australian community both directly and indirectly," he said.
- ABC News

15 August, 2008

Over the past few years, the Australian government’s 457 visa programme has opened the country’s labour market to tens of thousands of skilled foreign workers. But as the economy contracts, the programme’s open door may begin to close.
So far, the 457 story has been one of growth, as companies have looked offshore to plug skill gaps.
Department of Immigration figures released in July showed that the number of applications jumped from 46,680 in the 2006-07 financial year to 58,050 in 2007-08, a rise of 25 per cent.
The statistics indicate that, despite claims that the programme is being abused to bring in cheap unskilled labour, Australia is relying on other countries for the recruitment of professionals, such as doctors, nurses and IT specialists.
The figures also dispel claims that 457 visa holders are underpaid.
Their average salary is A$73,100 ($65,260), which is considerably higher than the average Australian salary of about A$55,000 ($49,000).
Immigration minister, Chris Evans, said the minimum salary for foreign workers would rise by 3.8 per cent this year. Britons are the biggest users of the programme; they account for about 13 per cent of visas issued. Indians are the second-largest group, at 8 per cent. Seven per cent come from the US.
As for destinations, the state of New South Wales (NSW) is the most popular, attracting about 20 per cent of the arrivals. However, all these figures were recorded on the back of a buoyant economy desperate for skilled foreign workers to maintain momentum and develop export industries.
As in much of the rest of the world, economic growth in Australia has come to an abrupt halt in the wake of the US sub-prime crisis. A series of interest rate rises has pushed mortgage rates up from 12-year lows only two or three years ago to almost 10 per cent.
And as the Australian dollar – worth only 50 US cents at the beginning of the decade – approaches parity with its US equivalent, export industries will begin to struggle. The high-water mark for the 457 visa scheme has been reached in the context of record employment levels.
In July, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics snapshot showed the unemployment rate was still falling and had come down to 4.2 per cent. About 30,000 people were finding work each month.
A separate survey of graduates from tertiary education found that nearly 90 per cent were employed within four months of leaving university, the highest percentage for more than a decade.
“Given the global credit crunch, given the global oil shock, these figures are very welcome,” said the Australian treasurer, Wayne Swan.
However, there is a growing consensus among economists that Australian employment is at a peak. With all forward indicators pointing to a slowdown, it seems inevitable that unemployment will start to edge up again – and that demand for foreign workers will decline. “It is a positive trend but unlikely to persist,” UBS chief economist Scott Haslem said last month. “Over the course of 2008, NSW and Victoria are likely to bear a larger brunt of the economic slowdown, given the more leveraged nature of consumers there.”
Even Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, has warned that Australia faces a recession.
Already, there are signs of change. Qantas, the country’s national airline, is at the forefront of the economic uncertainty. It recently announced it will cut 1,500 jobs and has cancelled plans to hire 1,200 staff.
Meanwhile, US coffee chain Starbucks has said it would close 61 of its 84 Australian outlets, with the loss of 685 jobs.
Business confidence is down and household spending, hit by a combination of rising interest rates and record levels of credit card debt, has slowed to a trickle as families tighten their financial belts.
In Melbourne, 530 jobs may be lost at the car maker Holden next year, when the company stops producing four-cylinder engines. The closure of the Mitsubishi vehicle plant in Adelaide already saw 900 jobs go in March this year.
The problems are also spreading to the finance industry, with three separate private sector surveys showing a decline in job advertisements.
The key to whether Australia has a soft or hard economic landing rests on the fate of the commodities sector, an industry driven almost entirely by foreign – and increasingly Chinese – demand.
So far, the consensus is that commodities will not fare as badly as, for example, the airline sector, and this will insulate Australia from a hard landing and a severe recession.
Even so, it would seem the party is well and truly over for the Australian economy, and hence the job market.
The country remains a favoured destination for skilled workers and migrants from all over the world, and during the boom times has been able to accommodate them.
The 457 visa was created precisely for that purpose, but there seems to be no doubt that fewer people will be able to take advantage of the scheme in the near future.
- FT.com

Tourism Australia Says "Make Australia Your Gap Year Stop"
15 August, 2008
LONDON, Aug 13, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- This year approximately 29,000 students from across the UK are expected to defer their university places and Tourism Australia is calling on these school-leavers to consider a working holiday gap year Down Under to help fund their travels and gain valuable life experience.
Last year, 7%(1) of accepted applicants deferred their university place for a year and, judging from the statistics from the past five years, this number of 'gappers' is expected to continue.
For those who deferred their university place or who didn't quite get the grades they expected this year, a 12-month gap year Down Under on a Working Holiday Visa gives school-leavers over 18 the opportunity to work and play in Australia.
Until June 30th this year, almost 11% of Australian Working Holiday Visa applicants from the UK were aged between 18 and 19, a figure that has remained constant for the past three years.
Tourism Australia is looking to build on this and has recently launched www.myspace.com/workinoz which is a dedicated site explaining how to apply for the visa, including tips on living the Aussie lifestyle.
The website also gives information on Australia's Second Working Holiday Visa where Brits and Irish can extend their visa for a second year provided they spend at least three months doing 'specified work' (such as fruit-picking or construction) in a regional area.
Tourism Australia General Manager (UK and Europe), Rodney Harrex said the 12-month gap year to Australia is a popular choice because it offers the chance to live abroad before embarking on a career or starting university.
"The Australian Working Holiday Visa allows travellers to stay for up to 12 months and work in any job," he said.
"Provided you've got a return airfare and some savings to prove you can support yourself when you arrive in Australia, anyone between the ages of 18-30 from the UK and Ireland can apply.
"I know a lot of parents worry that their children will run out of money on their gap years, but the reality is on a Working Holiday Visa you can begin employment from the first day you arrive on Australian soil."
- The Wall Street Journal

Labour market under threat from population bomb
13 August, 2008
AUSTRALIA'S already strained labour market is set for further turmoil at the end of the decade when the country crosses a "demographic fault line", where more people are leaving working age than entering it, leading demographer Bernard Salt says.
And a look at the fastest-growing occupations over the past five years shows the direction of Australia's changing labour market and highlights Australia's ageing population.
A demographer with KPMG, Mr Salt told a superannuation industry lunch in Melbourne yesterday that the growth in the number of people aged 15 to 64 is set to slow dramatically from about 2010.
"This is the productive population. This is the population from which our workforce is drawn … this is the guts, the engine, the piston that drives the Australian economy," he said.
"I think there is a demographic fault line that this country is going to cross at the end of this decade, around 2010, when more baby boomers exit than gen Ys enter the workforce."
With the skills shortage already hurting industry across Australia, Mr Salt argued the situation would only worsen in coming years.
"If you accept that there was a slowdown in the birth rate in the 1960s, 1970s, then you must also accept a slowdown in the rate of growth of the labour market in the early decades of the 21st century."
He pointed to the case of Japan, where the labour market has been contracting since 1994. In the past 14 years, the workforce in Japan has shrunk by 2 million people, from 65 million to 63 million
"Here, we haven't questioned growth for the last 20 or 30 years because the god of demography has delivered the baby boomers. I'm saying, it's all going to change at the end of this decade. Australia crosses that fault line at the end of this decade, Japan crossed it about 12 or 13 years ago, and the workplace began to contract at the same time.
"These demographics have a very real impact not just on labour markets, but on the tax base, on the amount of money sloshing around in the economy. And I would submit (that this contraction) leads to not only economic instability, but also political instability. How many prime ministers has Japan had in the last decade or so?"
Since Morihiro Hosokawa took office in August 1993, Japan has had nine prime ministers.
Australia, in that time, has had three.
China, too, Mr Salt argues, is facing a workforce contraction in about 2016, which could dent its status as the world's economic superpower.
Some Australian industries will feel the brunt of the retirement of the baby boomer generation first.
Sixty-eight per cent of beef cattle farmers are aged over 50, along with 34% of secondary school teachers.
Australia's labour market has changed markedly since the turn of the century, Mr Salt says, reflecting of the country's changing demographics.
Between 2001 and 2006, Australia's workforce grew by 805,500 people, some 10%, to 9,104,200. But the number of people working in hospitals has grown by 42% to 300,700 and the number working in accommodation for the aged has grown 269% to 66,300.
- theage.com.au