Australia and New Zealand Immigration News

An Australian Union is seeking to create legally binding agreements that would require employers to advertise jobs to try and find Australian workers and Australian residents before being allowed to recruit international workers to come to Australia on temporary work visas.

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) is currently holding a consultation on whether to recommend raising the maximum age limit for skilled migrants who can apply for visas.

The current age limit for applicants for skilled migrants under the SkillSelect scheme, formerly known as the General Skilled Migrant program, is 50 years. Fears have been raised that the current age restriction may be illegal because it clashes with Australia's Age Discrimination Act.

The Age newspaper reports that most of the hunger strikers on Nauru have ended their protests. Some reports last week suggested that 300 of the 350 inmates then being held in the offshore processing camp were refusing food. The Australian government denied that the hunger strike was so widespread.

The New Zealand government's statistical service, Statistics New Zealand, has released figures that show that, in the year to the end of September, there was a net population fall of 3,300 caused by migration.

There is a great opportunity for skilled tradespeople and professionals from the UK and India and indeed other Countries to emigrate to New South Wales, the most populous state in Australia. It is also the state with the biggest economy. There are three to four times more jobs advertised in New South Wales than in any other state. The unemployment rate in the state is very low and salaries are 10 to 15% higher than elsewhere in the country.

On 28th October 2012, Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, launched the Australian government white paper Australia in the Asian Century. The white paper lays out a comprehensive plan for Australian development in the next 13 years to see Australia take advantage of its position at the edge of Asia.