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Hi Jean
I agree with you! I love Alan Collett today too!!
I know that Alan did a huge amount behind the scenes, un-paid, un-sung and un-seen, to try to get the Minister to increase the quota of Parent visas. He also wrote to the Australian Governmennt Actuary, "querying" the model used by the Actuary in order to produce pessimistic predictions about the alleged cost of the Parent Visa Program. I've read the Actuary's Report though I didn't understand 3/4 of it - I haven't a clue how to do actuarial calculations. However, the Actuary did make it sound like the Parent Visa program was practically bankrupting Australia. I am not kidding. The thing reads like a dirge and even the Actuary acknowledged that she had been instructed to ignore all the benefits - tangible and intangible - that the Parent program brings with it, so the Report was/is completely lopsided in my view.
Alan got hold of this Report, obviously understood the maths in it, is sceptical about some of the assumptions used in creating the model so he wrote to the Actuary "querying" the thing - which I assume is a euphemism for "demolished it." Being an Accountant as well puts Alan head & shoulders above most of us when it comes to this sort of debate.
The rest of us, whingeing from an emotional viewpoint, could never have had as much effect as Alan had by getting to grips with the financial assumptions and arguments that underpin the whole Scheme, plus demonstrating that if more realistic - and balanced - assumptions were used the picture would look much rosier.
Nobody paid Alan for his work on this front, which makes him a hero in my eyes.
Best wishes
Gill
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