Australia and New Zealand Immigration News

The Australian immigration minister Chris Bowen has defended the Australian government's policies on the treatment of asylum seekers. He told MPs on the left wing of the Australian Labor Party, of which he is a member, that it would be wrong to allow those awaiting asylum decisions to be given the right to work. He also defended the government's policy of sending those who attempt to make the journey to Australia from Indonesia by sea to processing camps on Nauru and the Papua New Guinean island of Manus.

A report from an Australian university has claimed that Australia should substantially reduce the numbers of temporary work visas that it issues. The report was written by Dr Bob Birrell of the Centre for Urban and Population Research at Monash University, Melbourne.

Hays, the global recruitment consultant, has issued the Hays Global Report 2012. For the report, Hays engaged Oxford Economics to survey 27 economies around the world, including Australia's and New Zealand's in order to see whether there are skills shortages and what effect this is having on pay. It found that there are sector specific skills shortages in both countries.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Goldman Sachs has established a fund to capitalise on the growing trend for wealthy Chinese citizens to seek resident status in western countries. The fund will help wealthy Asians to apply for Australian visas under the Significant Investor Pathway scheme which opened for applications on 24th November 2012..

A new report published has found that many female immigrants working in the healthcare sector in Australia are being exploited. The report says that the Australian government's decision to grant more temporary work visas has made this problem worse. The report calls on the Australian government to 'support permanent migration'.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has issued a report which states that New Zealand should attempt to grow its population to reach 15m by 2060. The current population is about 4.5m. To reach the NZIER target, the population would have to grow at an annual rate of 2.5%. The backers of the report have called for a national debate on immigration.