Cerberus1

Home this evening 

The Australian Government’s move to outsource key visa functions has drawn a sharp response from the Commonwealth Public Service Union (CPSU).

Although it came into existence only on 1 January, the new Department of Home Affairs has been quick to continue the outsourcing strategies of its predecessors, the Australian Border Force and the Department of immigration.

The Department has announced the privatisation of the call centre that provides information about visas and other aspects of Australia’s immigration system. A three year contract has been awarded to Datacom, an international IT services company that already has contracts with other government departments including the Australian Taxation Office.

Under the terms of the contract 250 call centre jobs will move in the Department of Home Affairs to Datacom’s call centre in Adelaide.

The transition of services from the Department’s current service centres in Sydney, the United Kingdom and Canada will occur progressively with full implementation expected by mid-2018.

Minister Peter Dutton says the move will save money and reduce wait times for callers.

The CPSU does not see that way. It has condemned the decision, saying it puts sensitive personal information hands of a private company and will reduce the quality of service.

“Datacom has a poor track record in terms of the wages and working conditions for its staff. It rakes in sizeable profits from Commonwealth contracts,” said CPSU Acting Deputy Secretary Brooke Muscat-Bentley.

“At the same time it may be artificially reducing its profits to reduce tax liabilities. Datacom has reported very low profit margins, raising questions as to whether it is using multinational tax structures to avoid tax obligations.

“This is a devastating decision for the 250 dedicated staff currently doing this work, along with their families, but also for the people who are so reliant on their assistance to navigate Australia’s complex Immigration rules and processes. Outsourcing this kind of work to a private company like Datacom means paying more and receiving less in return.

“Staff in the current call centre are well trained and work under strict Commonwealth guidelines to ensure the sensitive personal information they have access to is protected. By contrast we have serious concerns about the training and protections that will be in place under Datacom.

Source: https://www.governmentnews.com.au/

Australia will become the 11th largest economy on earth within the next eight years. The forecast is from UK think tank the Centre for Economics and Business Research, and is contained in its World Economic League Table 2018 report.

“One of this year’s themes is that countries depending on brainpower will generally overtake countries depending on natural resources,” says the report.” Australia is one of the most popular countries in the world for inward migration as well as having natural resources.

“The growing population means that the economy is forecast to rise from 13th largest in 2017 to 11th largest economy in 2026. Investment in urban infrastructure will need to accelerate as population increases.”

There is a perception amongst many in Australia that we have a small economy. While Australia is well behind global leaders such as the USA and China, it is larger – in terms of economic output – than many countries we might

As the report points out, the key driver of Australia’s economic growth is more people. Population is growing much more quickly than most other countries the Western world, primarily as a result of high immigration. Both major parties support this policy, though there is now something of a backlash against it.

The findings have significant ramifications for public policy makers. The report mentions the need for higher spending on infrastructure, but it also means that Australia will be increasingly important on the global stage. Government policy at all levels will need to reflect this.

A key aspect of the report is the growth of Asia, and in particular Australia’s largest trading partner China, which is forecast to overtake the USA the world’s top economy by 2030. “This remains a remarkable achievement from an economy that was only 12 percent the size of the US economy as recently as 2000.”

India will shortly overtake UK and France to become the world’s fifth largest economy (Japan and Germany will remain third and fourth). By 2032 three out of the world’s four largest economies will be Asian (China, India and Japan) while Korea and Indonesia enter world’s top ten, and Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines and Pakistan enter world’s top 25 economies.

“As formerly developing countries develop, they will become the majority of the world economy. As recently as 2000 the developed world was 76 percent of the world economy and the other countries 24 percent. Not surprisingly world politics was dominated by the 76 percent. By 2032 their share will have dropped to 44 percent while the formerly developing nations are 56 percent. Political influence is bound to follow the changing economic share and the former developing economies are likely to get increased political leverage in world bodies and bilateral relations.

Other highlights of the report:

• India leapfrogs Britain and France to become the world’s 5th largest economy in dollar terms in 2018.
• Brexit effects on UK less than feared and the UK bounces back to overtake France in 2020.
• China overtakes the USA to become the world’s largest dollar economy in 2030.
• Because the impact of President Trump on trade has been less severe than expected, the USA will retain its global crown a year longer than anticipated in the last report.
• Cheap energy boosts growth for energy consumers but hits energy producer.
• As a consequence of a weak oil price, Russia will drop from 11th in 2017 to 17th in 2032.
• Brazil will overtake France and the UK and become the 6th largest economy by 2028 • Italy will drop out of the ten largest economies by 2023 and fall to 13th in 2029.

The World Economic League Table tracks the size of different economies across the globe and projects changes over the next 15 years. This year the main revisions reflect dramatic changes in economic assumptions

“If major risks can be avoided, our central forecast is for a period of stronger growth than we have seen for the past five years, driven by cheap energy and by technology.

“The price of oil has been edging down over the last decade, driven by weaker demand, a falling ratio of energy usage to GDP as output dematerialises and, on the supply side, the growth of energy production from renewables and from fracking which has changed the traditional relationship between GDP and oil prices. We expect this change to persist through to 2032.”

Just short of 44 Mbps out here in the sticks tonight. Being able to live rural on acreage, yet still have internet fast enough to stream 4k tv works for me 

Don't know what state you've in, you may be able to use the govt website - https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/ On the results page, each result has a pdf fact sheet which tells you the kwh at the top.

The Property Council says that Tasmania should be aiming to attract a further 34,000 residents by 2022 to ensure the state’s economic renaissance continues.

Brian Wightman, the council’s Tasmanian executive director said the target figure should be 552,500 residents — based on an Australian average growth rate of 1.6% and a base of 518,500 — and could done by targeting working-age interstate and international migrants to drive economic and social improvements.

Mr Wightman said whichever party forms government after the coming state election needs to establish “an ambitious and intermediate” population target for the next four years.

The Liberal Government’s population growth strategy aims to increase the state’s population to 650,000 by 2050, but Mr Wightman said establishing an intermediate target would provide impetus for implementing the existing one.

“The incoming state government needs to set a population target for 2022, and enact a range of strategies, including investing in growth,”.

“Working-age interstate and international migrants must be our target market with their ability to drive economic and social improvement the key to our future.”

When the Liberals announced the target of 650,000 in 2014, both Labor and the Greens both said they would not be putting target figures on the state’s future population.

Last year, Tasmania’s population grew at its fastest rate in six years but it still lags behind the national average.

Demographer Lisa Denny says significant planning and investment will be needed to turbocharge the growth.

“There are two main contributors to population growth in Tasmania — migration and natural increase,” she said.

“Both of those are influenced by two things, one is the economic performance of the state and how it compares to the rest of Australia and the other is the size of the reproductive cohort.

“To get to where we want to be will actually require significant planning and investment in a range of factors and this won’t be easy to achieve.

“Yes you want migrants, but you also want them of the right age profile to contribute to natural increase.”

Ms Denny said going after interstate and international migrants would help the state deal with its skill shortages but it needed to be targeted to provide the services that the state needed.

Founding member of the Migrant Resource Centre Ike Naqvi — who came to Tasmania in the 1960s to study geology but has gone on to become a business leader — agreed that the state should be targeted in who it tries to attract.

“I absolutely agree in bringing in skilled migrants,” he said. “But we need to make sure there are jobs for them, we need to have those structures in place.

“We need to look at those areas where the skills are needed, such as IT.”

Google has been forced to “revise its Australian recruitment plans” in response to government changes to the 457 skilled migration visa scheme.

The web giant has urged the government to “fix” the scheme to help it attract overseas nationals with “business-critical skills” - as well as domain product knowledge - on longer-term visas. The comments were first reported by Computerworld.

Google complained that the current visa system is “uncompetitive compared to global peers” because it did not recognise “proprietary knowledge” as a required skill, nor offer the “long-term certainty necessary to attract people from overseas”.

Last August, the government dumped 457 visas in favour of a tightened temporary skill shortage (TSS) visa and culled 200 positions from the list of jobs eligible for skilled migration.

Most IT roles on the 457 list were spared under the new scheme.

But Google noted it needed skills in disciplines outside of those specific IT domains.

“Business-critical skills have been excluded from the longer term visa categories that are necessary to attract workers with the knowledge and experience required to train younger Australian employees,” Google said.

“Examples include product managers, who need high level software engineering, project management and people leadership skills; user experience (UX) specialists, whose sub disciplines are covered by a number of Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) codes; and technical solutions and systems administrators proficient in Google’s proprietary products and systems.”

Google argued that proprietary knowledge ranked “among the most critical skill categories for workers within complex modern businesses.”

“This is not recognised in the structure of Australia’s current skilled migration system, which also pigeon-holes emerging roles in rapidly changing businesses into existing ANZSCO skill categories,” it said.

Google also wanted to see changes to the visa system to give workers the confidence to move to Australia in the first place.

“Uprooting a family to move across the world is a significant decision, and although Australia offers a high standard of living, the nation's current visa scheme does not provide the stability required for senior workers with families and children if their role falls into a short term skill category,” Google said.

“This makes it difficult to recruit workers, and means roles that are necessary for Google’s business operations are harder to place in Australia compared to other centres across the region.”

Google currently employs about 1300 people in Australia, the “majority” of whom are Australian.

I send a 20kg box from the UK to Aus 3 or 4 times a year. I always use https://www.parcelmonkey.co.uk/ costs me about £100.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics have just released the latest statistics for Job vacancies (for the Nov 17 quarter). 

NOVEMBER KEY POINTS

TREND ESTIMATES

Total job vacancies in November 2017 were 210,800, an increase of 4.1% from August 2017.

The number of job vacancies in the private sector was 191,800 in November 2017, an increase of 4.6% from August 2017.

The number of job vacancies in the public sector was 19,000 in November 2017, a decrease of -0.7% from August 2017.

Source: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6354.0?OpenDocument

Despite the lack of an El Niño in 2017 (which is normally associated with our hottest years), Australia experienced its third-warmest year on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The national mean temperature of 22.75C was almost 1C higher than a 1961-1990 baseline, its annual report revealed.

Only 2005 and 2013 were warmer, based on records kept for about a century.

In November, the World Meteorological Organization projected that 2017 was "very likely" to be among the hottest years ever globally.

The majority of Australia saw above-average heat, with maximum temperatures the second-warmest on record, the bureau said.

Summer heat described as "exceptional" had resulted in several land-based records being set in New South Wales and Queensland.

In its annual report released on Wednesday, the bureau said seven of Australia's 10 warmest years had occurred since 2005. Only one year, 2011, had cooler than average temperatures.

It also reiterated that the Great Barrier Reef had suffered consecutive years of mass bleaching due to elevated ocean temperatures.

Climate change caused by human activity had contributed to the annual mean temperature increasing by about 1.1C since 1910, the report said.

On Sunday, Sydney experienced its hottest day in 79 years when temperatures hit 47.3C. A previous study has warned Australia's biggest cities could face 50C temperatures by 2040.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42630056

https://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/rental-affordability-index

https://www.sgsep.com.au/download_file/view/1536/648

Next sessions are:

6 minutes ago, SUPERSTARDJ01 said:

On 07/01/2018 at 15:15, Cerberus1 said:

For the 489 Visa, the Invited pathway states (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/489-#tab-content-0)
You 'will be sponsored by an eligible relative living in a designated area of Australia'.
You must be prepared to live, work and study in only certain areas of Australia. If you are sponsored by a relative, this is a designated area of Australia.
Reading from the above, both the sponsor and applicant must live in a 'designated area of Australia'
However, is you look at the link below, 'Designated Area' covers all of Victoria
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/supporting/Pages/skilled/designated-area-of-australia.aspx
 

 

Doesn't QLD also exclude the gold coast?

Different criteria depending on if you were sponsored by a state/territory or by a relative. If by a relative then it's a 'Designated area' (above) if it's state/territory, then it's a 'regional low-population growth metropolitan area' (below)

Some members who've used them on these threads

https://www.pomsinoz.com/topic/197148-shipping-from-brisbane/

https://www.pomsinoz.com/topic/182183-oss-or-kent/

https://www.pomsinoz.com/topic/189501-oss-world-wide-movers/

Conveyancer / solicitor costs - maybe $1,000

Assuming it's not a new house, stamp duty in Victoria would be $11,370 or $9,935 in Tasmania. You'd also have the 'Transfer fee (a government fee for registering your name on the title of the property and removing the vendor’s name.) of around $900 in Victoria or $200 in Tasmania

For the 489 Visa, the Invited pathway states (https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/489-#tab-content-0)

You 'will be sponsored by an eligible relative living in a designated area of Australia'.

You must be prepared to live, work and study in only certain areas of Australia. If you are sponsored by a relative, this is a designated area of Australia.

Reading from the above, both the sponsor and applicant must live in a 'designated area of Australia'

However, is you look at the link below, 'Designated Area' covers all of Victoria

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/supporting/Pages/skilled/designated-area-of-australia.aspx

Slightly different rules according to state.

NSW

You can use a gas barbeque under the following conditions:

• It is under the direct control of a responsible adult, who is present at all times while it is operating;
• No combustible material is allowed within two metres at any time it is operating;
• You have an immediate and continuous supply of water; and
  • The barbeque is within 20 metres of a permanent private dwelling such as a home; or
  • The barbeque is within a designated picnic area and the appliance is approved by Council, National Parks or State Forest.

VIC

No unless:

• the barbecue uses only gas or electricity and is a permanently fixed structure built of stone, metal, concrete or another non-flammable material designed exclusively for meal preparation, or is designed and commercially manufactured exclusively for meal preparation (including portable barbecues), and when alight is placed in a stable position
• the area within a distance of 3 metres from the outer perimeter of the barbecue is clear of flammable material
• you have either a hose connected to a water supply or a container with at least 10 litres of water for immediate use
• an adult is there at all times when a fire is alight who has the capacity and means to extinguish the fire
• the fire is completely extinguished before the adult leaves.

Common Green Tree-frog in back garden tonight

Go Walkabout also offer one way travel insurance - http://www.go-walkabout.co.uk/one_way_travel_insurance.php

Python (a couple of days ago)

The domain australia-migration.com used to belong to ASA consultants who were based in Perth. I think they went bust around 5 years ago

Given the domain ownership details are now hidden, there's no Australia/UK contact details, the US address is a virtual office (https://www.opusvirtualoffices.com/virtual-office/arizona/scottsdale/location-967) there's no Agent details listed on the site, the news section doesn't have anything listed for 3 years, the website is not displaying correctly and the content has been lifted from the previous owners of the domain - https://web.archive.org/web/20130424050131/http://australia-migration.com/ I'd probably give it a miss.

On 25/10/2017 at 18:11, Cerberus1 said:

We're rural, so have had fixed Wireless NBN for the last year or so. Considering where we live, I've been very happy with it. Today's speed is below

 

we often get faster than that and looking at my speed test figures over the year, several times the download figure has been 40+ Mb/s

Drop outs - it maybe drops out once a week on average, I'd guess about 20 minutes downtime per week.

We work from home, so internet is vital and it's been fine.

For backup/redundancy purposes, I do pay $100 per month for a Netgear® Nighthawk® M1  with 40GB per month , but have never had the need to use it at home, so just tend to use it when travelling.

Hitting over 40 Mb/s now on NBN fixed wireless. Not bad, considering we're 30km away from the nearest town.

Early 2018, NBN are due to roll out 100/40 speeds on fixed wireless

Australia is in the grip of a housing crisis and the rental market is failing too many people — especially older women, according to the latest Rental Affordability Index (RAI).

The report, released today by the National Shelter, Community Sector Banking and SGS, found low-income households could no longer afford to live in metropolitan areas.

Pensioners and students were the most vulnerable, with some of them winding up homeless.

Adrian Pisarski, executive officer of National Shelter, was involved with compiling the index and said there was, "virtually no affordable housing in any Australian city for people on low incomes".

"This is now representative of a true housing crisis in Australia and a true market failure," he said.

Sydney remained the worst city to rent, bleeding some households of almost 90 per cent of their incomes.

Hobart was the second worst area, due to the number of people there living on low incomes.

And then it was glitzy holiday destinations like Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, or the Gold Coast in south east Queensland.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-29/national-rental-market-failing-many-australians/9205148

Full Report: RAI_2017_NOV_-_final_compressed.pdf

I can only hope my mother isn't reading this thread. She's coming over from the UK for Christmas, gets here on Sunday. Mozzies are problematic enough.. if she finds out we've got airborne snakes, she'll be on the first flight back home