Search Results
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FAZAL RIZVI. The benefits to Australia of our Asian diasporas which now constitute over 17% of our population.
That Asian-Australians are making a substantial contribution to the Australian economy is a fact that can no longer be contested. This contribution is of enormous significance, especially as Australia seeks to become integrated into the regional economy. Continue reading »
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FAZAL RIZVI. Migration Ain’t What It Used to Be
That Asian-Australians are making a substantial contribution to the Australian economy is a fact that can no longer be contested. This contribution is of enormous significance, especially as Australia seeks to become integrated into the regional economy. The issues of how this contribution might be mapped and enhanced are examined in a report released by Continue reading »
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FAZAL RIZVI. What students learn about Asia is outdated and needs to change.
While we readily recognise the new Asia to be culturally dynamic, and changing rapidly, we have yet to develop a more sophisticated understanding of Asia-Australia relations – and indeed also of the discourse of Asia literacy. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Is Bob Birrell Right on Australia’s Skilled Migration Program?
Australia has tentatively begun a debate about immigration – both the size of the annual intake and whether the country is choosing the right migrants. It’s a vital debate, but one that is open to misunderstanding, to producing more heat than light. With such a sensitive topic, the facts are critical. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Will Dutton’s high stakes gamble wrong-foot the Treasury?
Peter Dutton is gambling with a long-standing pillar of Australia’s economic and budget success. By making the biggest cut to permanent skilled migration since the recession of the early 1990s, combined with a throttling of skilled temporary migration, Dutton will significantly reduce net migration and therefore our population growth rate. The 1.6% per annum population Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Pezzullo’s Dark World View is Paralyzing Australia’s Immigration System.
In a recent speech to heads of international border agencies, Mike Pezzullo, head of Australia’s new Home Affairs Department, again highlighted the dark world view that, together with the policies of Peter Dutton, is paralyzing our world class immigration system. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Business migration should focus on establishing businesses not passive investment
While Eryk Bagshaw’s article of 8 July 2018 screams Millionaires stream in, the Sun Herald’s editorial of the same day is a bit more sanguine about the benefits and risks of the Business Innovation and Investment Programme that facilitates entry of business migrants and investors. This Programme and its predecessors, while superficially attractive, have a Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. What is Dutton Hiding Now?
In announcing the outcome of the migration and humanitarian programs, immigration ministers have traditionally provided extensive details on outcomes against planning levels by visa category, as well as other relevant information (see here for examples of such reports for past years). For the 2017-18 outcome, Peter Dutton rushed to get the news out via an Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Will the number of temporary entrants continue to grow?
Apart from Senator Anning’s appalling speech, the other big immigration news this week was that the stock of temporary entrants in Australia was over 2 million as at 30 June 2018. Since 2012, the stock has grown by over 400,000. This has been a long-term trend since the recession of the early 1990s. But is Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Scott Morrison’s Record on Immigration
While Scott Morrison earlier this year publicly disagreed with Tony Abbott on immigration levels, he eventually gave way to Dutton’s ruse about ‘greater scrutiny’ leading to the migration program ‘ceiling’ not being delivered in 2017-18. Will he continue to compromise with Abbott and Dutton on immigration or has he drawn a line in the sand Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Playing God.
Did Peter Dutton breach his own guidelines for ministerial intervention? Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Morrison’s U-Turn on Migrants for the Bush.
Scott Morrison has given another exclusive, this time to news.com, on his ideas to encourage more skilled migrants to settle in the regions and smaller cities and away from the major metropolitan centres. While it’s great to have a prime minister prepared to talk about immigration and population, he again failed to explain why usage Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Privatising visa processing – the alarm bells are ringing (Part 1)
Major ICT transformation projects conducted ‘in partnership’ with a big IT company are high risk. Privatisation of core government functions such as visa processing are also high risk, especially when undertaken under the cloak of commercial-in-confidence type secrecy. Doing the two together multiplies the risk big time. But that is exactly what the Home Affairs Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Privatising visa processing – the alarm bells are ringing (Part 2)
Major ICT transformation projects conducted ‘in partnership’ with a big IT company are high risk. Privatisation of core government functions such as visa processing are also high risk, especially when undertaken under the cloak of commercial-in-confidence type secrecy. Doing the two together multiplies the risk big time. But that is exactly what the Home Affairs Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Is Dutton Frustrated by the Success of Turnback Policy?
After Scott Morrison’s success in implementing boat turnbacks, and Shorten insisting he will maintain that policy, Dutton’s role in this space has largely been confined to scaremongering. At last he has found a role he excels in. But like the boy who cried wolf, is the Australian public starting to see through Dutton’s bluster? Continue reading »
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How the 2017-18 migration program was delivered
The report on the 2017-18 migration program has now been publicly released, more than two and a half months after an exclusive to The Australian newspaper and a short time after the Home Affairs department appeared before Senate estimates. As reported in The Australian, the outcome was indeed 162,417, over 27,500 below the ceiling of Continue reading »
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An agricultural visa would change Australian society – for the worse
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has, for the time being, rejected creation of an agricultural visa in favour of changes to the existing working holiday maker program and the seasonal worker visa (see here). These are unlikely to satisfy demands of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) for an agricultural visa. While most Australians would see this Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Morrison says ‘enough’ to a problem largely of his making.
Scott Morrison says ‘enough’ to the level of migration to Sydney and Melbourne (see here). Yet he fails to mention that it was his actions that brought about the surge in migration to Sydney and Melbourne in the first place. And more knee jerk decisions won’t help, either from the Commonwealth or the states. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Is our Visa Processing System in Crisis?
A fundamental aspect of a well operating immigration system is one that encourages people to apply for the right visa and follow intended visa pathways after arrival rather than use visitor visas to by-pass applying for the right visa. Visitor visas have the lowest level of scrutiny and are the easiest to exploit. But the Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Dutton Sets New Asylum Seeker Application Record
Why did 50,000 asylum seekers arriving by boat represent a crisis for our border sovereignty while the arrival of a similar number over the past two and a half years by plane is just ho hum? Peter Dutton in 2017-18 has set a new record for the number of asylum seeker applications received. His record Continue reading »
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MICHAEL PASCOE. Irony: Record number of asylum seekers arrive on Dutton’s watch (The New Daily, 09.12.18)
For all the government’s tough-on-asylum-seekers rhetoric, protection visa applications have blown out to record numbers on Peter Dutton’s watch. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. Dutton Sets New Asylum Seeker Application Record
Why did 50,000 asylum seekers arriving by boat represent a crisis for our border sovereignty while the arrival of a similar number over the past two and a half years by plane is just ho hum? Peter Dutton in 2017-18 has set a new record for the number of asylum seeker applications received. His record Continue reading »
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MICHAEL KELLY SJ The biggest con in any current debate in Australian public life
In a highly contested event, one political con over the last decade stands out as the greatest bipartisan piece of deception in any enduring debate: the obfuscation employed in the public arguments over asylum seeker arrivals in Australia. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI: Is Minister Coleman Unwinding Dutton’s Sub-class 457 Changes
Poor David Coleman. Business and employer groups, particularly in regional Australia, have been pillorying him for the ham-fisted changes to employer-sponsored temporary and permanent migration implemented by his predecessor Peter Dutton. Contrary to the traditional approach of past Liberal Party Immigration Ministers, Dutton tightened these categories in a way that shocked business and employer groups. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Fake news, spin and media complicity on border protection and boat arrivals.
In his desperate political situation, Scott Morrison last week became even more shrill in telling us ‘Bill Shorten is a clear and present threat to Australian security … and I’ll fight them [the ALP] using whatever tools or tactics I have available to me to ensure that we do not weaken border protection laws’. His Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Reminder to Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison: Australia is a parliamentary democracy
On the last sitting day of Parliament, the Government took extraordinary measures to block a vote on a bill to ease the medical evacuation of asylum-seekers on Manus Island and Nauru. The Government’s terror of losing a vote on the floor of the House reveals a dangerous misunderstanding of the workings of our parliamentary democracy. Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. The Best of 2018: Dutton Sets New Asylum Seeker Application Record.
Why did 50,000 asylum seekers arriving by boat represent a crisis for our border sovereignty while the arrival of a similar number over the past two and a half years by plane is just ho hum? Peter Dutton in 2017-18 has set a new record for the number of asylum seeker applications received. His record Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. The Best of 2018: Scott Morrison’s Record on Immigration.
While Scott Morrison earlier this year publicly disagreed with Tony Abbott on immigration levels, he eventually gave way to Dutton’s ruse about ‘greater scrutiny’ leading to the migration program ‘ceiling’ not being delivered in 2017-18. Will he continue to compromise with Abbott and Dutton on immigration or has he drawn a line in the sand Continue reading »
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ABUL RIZVI. What were the drivers of Net Overseas Migration in 2017-18?
Net Overseas Migration (NOM) in 2017-18 fell to 236,733, down from 262,490 in 2016-17. The decline is not as large as might have been expected given cuts to the migration and humanitarian programs and policy changes to employer sponsored temporary and permanent migration. Visitors changing status after arrival now represent a record 24 per cent Continue reading »
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CHRIS HEDGES. Banishing Truth – The story of Seymour Hersh. (Truthdig 24.12.2018)
The investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, in his memoir “Reporter,” describes a moment when as a young reporter he overheard a Chicago cop admit to murdering an African-American man. The murdered man had been falsely described by police as a robbery suspect who had been shot while trying to avoid arrest. Hersh frantically called his editor to Continue reading »