Despite Trade Recognition Australia (TRA)’s previous pledge to introduce their new Migration Assessment Policy (MAP), following the unprecedented scrapping of Skill Pathway D in September 2007, the Authority has decided that the implementation of MAP is to be suspended indefinitely.

A conference was scheduled for 1 September, at which the plans for the new policy were to be made public. However, no such conference will be taking place.

Mat Taylor, executive director and chief finance officer of Fenland District Council, in Cambridgeshire, has decided to leave his six-figure salary in the UK in order to migrate to Australia with his family.

However,  the 44-year-old has come under fire from the Taxpayers’ Alliance for accepting a salary of £20,000 for one day’s work per week over the next twelve months to manage Fenland’s £18 million budget, which he will do via video link and email.

The importance of the 457 visa program to Australian employers has been outlined by the fact that the number of migrants entering the country under the program has increased by 27 percent over the last financial year.

A total of 110,570 temporary visas were granted to workers from overseas as well as their families in 2007-08 compared to 87,310 in the previous year. 

Moreover, the number of primary visa holders increased from 46,680 in 2006-07 to 58,050 in 2007-08.

Australian Immigration minister Chris Evans has announced that a panel of experts, comprising Australian state officials, industry group members and union leaders, will advise the country’s government as to how it could improve the 457 visa program.

The 457 system, which allows Australian employers to hire workers from abroad, has been subject to controversy in recent years, mainly due to allegations of exploitation by unscrupulous employers eager to over-work and under-pay newly-arrived migrant workers.

Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans has called upon states and territories to increase their use of state-sponsored skilled migration in a bid to meet the needs of the labour market.

"There is the capacity within the Federal Government's permanent skilled migration program for states and territories to sponsor overseas skilled workers in occupations in demand," Evans said.

Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Evans has revealed that changes have been made to further expand the Working Holiday Visa program, allowing people who have worked in the construction industry in regional Australia for three months or longer to apply for a second visa.

Mr. Evans commented: ‘Extending this concession to construction will help this booming industry by encouraging people on working holidays to undertake short-term construction work in regional Australia.’

Australia’s population is increasing at the impressive rate of one million every three years, as record levels of migration to Australia combine with a rebounding birth-rate, creating what is currently the highest population in the country’s history.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has estimated that the nation’s population expanded by 331, 872 in 2007, with a growth rate of 1.6 per cent, the highest in almost two decades.

By early 2007, Australia’s population stood at just under 21.2 million people, one in four of whom were born outside of Australia. These statistics are largely due to the massive demand for Australian skilled visas which allow migrants to work and live in the country.

Certain aspects of the Australian citizenship test are set to be changed in the wake of the exam being branded “too difficult” by former diplomat Richard Walcott.

According to The Age, Walcott announced that a  review committee had found the test for Australian visa applicants unnecessarily hard, containing information which is deemed to be little more than useless knowledge.

The Australian government has announced that the minimum salary for temporary foreign workers entering the country under the 457 visa program is to be increased. The mover is part of a number of reforms geared towards “improving the integrity of the program”, according to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans revealed that minimum salaries for new migrants have been frozen for the past two years, and salary increases have previously applied to new entrants only. The latest increase will apply to all 457 visa holders, including those already residing in Australia.

Migration analysis firm Migrationwatch has revealed statistics which show that there are only five countries in the world which accepted more UK immigrants than emigrants to Great Britain, two of which were Australia and New Zealand.

The research, which was undertaken between 1991 and 2006, found that over the fifteen year period, Australia welcomed 212,000 British migrants, whilst New Zealand attracted 44,000 migrants from the UK.

Moreover, Australian immigration is set to increase once more with the announcement that the New South Wales government is swimming in its thirteenth consecutive budget surplus.