Australia: Julia Gillard’s “Sustainable Population” Plan & Indian Students

[dhani24dhani]

Well and good explanation about new immigration policy and Indian migrants regards ( see bellow link), still i am having doubt, because last 3 years cooks PR applications most of them not processed, and

DIAC show the number of applicants list to "cap and cease bill commit y" cooks are nearly 14,000 like, i reckon this is good trick of immigration ministry. Senate have to consider this type of number magics. Then in Australia having cafe culture every streets having number of hotels and restaurant due to this cooks wanted high. Any way bellow link big article gives some good breath to Indians who are in OZ.

thanks

Dhani

pl visit

Australia: Julia Gillard’s “Sustainable Population” Plan & Indian Students | The Moderate Voice

 

 

In India, the media coverage about changes in Australian education/immigration policy created some panic. The Australian High Commission issued a clarification to end the fevered speculation, especially as a large number of Indian students are attending colleges and vocational institutes in Australia.

 

The key points in the press release on ‘Australia’s Skilled Migration program’ are:

• Australia has altered its skilled migration policy, not its student visa policy

• No students are going to be sent home in July

• On the contrary all will be allowed to complete their courses after which they can apply for an additional 18 months stay during which they can work and seek employer sponsorship to remain in Australia

• There is no plan for ‘visa capping’ on student visas

• The changes apply to all applications from all countries. They are not targeted at India, nor are they triggered by the problems of the last year over attacks on Indian students

• The changes are not retrospective – they apply only from 1 July 2010

• Australia has in place very generous transition measures

• Australia is open to skilled migration that meets its labour market needs

 

The press release continues: “In response to recent media reports on changes to Australia’s skilled migration program, the High Commission would like to clarify the following points. First we are making changes to Australia’s skilled migration program, not our student visa program.

 

“The changes to our skilled migration program, announced on 8 February 2010, reflect the evolving needs of the Australian labour market. We are committed to a skilled migration program that is targeted at the needs of the Australian labour market. Our goal is to ensure the Australian economy remains strong and efficient. These specific labour market needs are determined by an independent statutory authority – Skills Australia.

 

“Second, the changes we are making to our skilled migration program are global changes. They are not targeted at India or any other country. They were not triggered by the problems of the last year over attacks on Indian students.

 

“Third, the changes are not retrospective and will apply only from 1 July 2010.

 

“Fourth, no students from any country will be sent home on 1 July. Such reports confuse two different categories of visa. The skilled migration visa is completely separate to the student visa. No student, whether from India or elsewhere, currently studying in Australia is going to be asked to cease their course because of changes to our skilled migration program. They will be allowed to complete their studies. Many have visas that enable them to study courses for several years.

 

“But it is important to remember that student visas allow people to come to Australia on a temporary basis for a specified period to undertake study at an Australian educational institution. There is no guarantee of migration just because someone holds a student visa. Any suggestion to the contrary is a misrepresentation of Australia’s clearly stated policy.

 

Fifth, the Australian Government has provided generous transition arrangements to ensure those international students who were in Australia when the changes were announced on 8 February 2010 have every opportunity to fulfil their objectives. If their objective is to complete their studies, they will be free to do so. If their objective is to shift to another course of study, they will be free to do so subject to meeting the entry requirements. If their objective is to stay in Australia to work after the completion of their studies, they can apply for a Temporary Skilled Graduate visa under the old arrangements, which will give them 18 months with full work rights. They can use this time to find an employer-sponsor, find a state-government sponsor, gain a new skill or get work experience. These are very generous transition arrangements by any measure.

 

“These transition arrangements apply until the end of 2012 and extend to all people who held student visas at the date of the announcement (8 February 2010). These arrangements provide students with both the time and the opportunity to explore their options in the Australian labour market before making a decision on their future.

 

“Those who are able to demonstrate that they can meet Australia’s skills needs as articulated in the requirements for a permanent skilled visa will still have the opportunity to achieve permanent residence. . The success of an individual applicant will depend on whether they meet the requirements for a visa that exist at the time they make an application.

 

“Some media outlets have raised concerns about ‘visa capping’. These concerns relate to a Bill that is currently before the Australian Parliament. The amendments proposed in this Bill have been designed to manage the skilled migration program and ensure it meets the labour market needs of the Australian economy as flexibly as possible. There are no plans to apply this power to the student visa program. It is worth noting that the power to cap visa applications has existed for some years – the Bill that is before the Parliament seeks to provide greater precision and flexibility in the way in which the power can be applied.”

 

More information on the changes to the Australian skilled migration program can be found at:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/faq-gsmchanges.pdf

 

Meanwhile see here what Ian Young, vice-chancellor, Swinburne University of Technology, wrote in The Australian early this year about violence involving foreign students.

[Jo_uktooz]

In a speech to the Lowy Institute in Sydney on the asylum seeker issue Julia Gillard made the following comments about skilled migration.

Julia Gillard's speech to the Lowy Institute on Labor's new asylum-seeker policy for Australia | The Australian

 

I have also made it clear that a national leader must recognise when a Government needs to take a breath, slow down, weigh the evidence and make the right, considered judgements for our people. To this end I’ve made it clear that I support sustainable population growth and reject the idea that Australia should hurtle down the track towards a big population.

Population growth has always been a part of Australia’s story. I arrived in Australia as a little girl with my family in 1966 – since then Australia’s population has doubled from 11 to 22 million people, reflecting both immigration and natural population growth.

In the years ahead, our population will continue to grow, but the issue for Australia is both the speed of that growth, and whether - and where - it can be sustained.

We are very roughly the same size as America and we are a great country like America - but we are not America. We do not have the inland sprawling plains, fertile soils and cities for that kind of population. 80 per cent of our population lives along our coast precisely because our continent is different.

In many faster growing parts of Australia – like western Sydney, south-east Queensland and the growth corridors of Wyndham and Melton, in my own electorate in Melbourne’s western suburbs - people would laugh if you told them population growth was intended to improve living standards. People in these communities are on the front line of our population increase and they know that bigger isn’t necessarily better.

At the same time, other parts of Australia are crying out for more people – skilled workers to fill job vacancies in occupations like mining, health and aged care, and community services. I regard this alone as a giant policy question for Australia. It is truly the mismatch of modern Australia: communities with too many people and not enough jobs and then other communities with too many jobs and not enough people.

This is reason enough to declare that population policy should not be driven by an arbitrary single number.

Instead, I believe it must be driven by the needs and the circumstances of each region across the nation. With this in mind I have commissioned the Minister for Sustainable Population, Tony Burke to develop a population strategy for a sustainable Australia.

If we move forward together with ‘sustainability’ guiding our way, there are also new industries we can grow, new jobs we can create, new skills we can teach, new technologies we can develop and, if we get this right, a quality of life that will continue to be the envy of the rest of the world, and so we have begun an important debate on sustainable population growth. It is a positive debate we intend to lead and one that must not be constrained by self censorship or political correctness.

[Jo_uktooz]

And there is also an excellent article in todays Australian newspaper by Paul Kelly.

PM must be clear on population | The Australian

LABOR has let the genie out of the bottle in its pronouncements for a future Australia. THE Labor government has mismanaged the politics of population and a dangerous moment for Australia has arrived: a new female Prime Minister whose first significant statement of direction is to bury the idea of a "Big Australia". Nobody knows what Julia Gillard's statement actually means. Is she the first leader to embrace a "Little Australia"?

Does she plan to throttle back economic growth in the cause of environmental restraint?

Presumably the pragmatic Gillard, herself a Welsh migrant, means neither of the above. But Gillard's speech to the Lowy Institute yesterday revealed more about asylum-seekers than the more important issue of population policy. She champions "sustainable population growth" but this is a universal given.

 

 

 

 

Her real point is clear: Gillard wants Australia to "take a breath", slow down its population growth and have immigration numbers driven by regional needs.

The worst kept secret in politics is that Labor's research shows urban congestion has turned the public against high immigration.. For Gillard, there is no easy fix. How much is her method mere electoral politics and how much is a new and viable policy direction?

 

 

Very interesting times ahead in Australian politics methinks.

[Bobj]

Julia is good on rhetoric, let's hope she is good on delivery...But, being left wing, I wonder.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[Guest chris955]

This is a very valid point, we must bear in mind that in all probability 90% + of new immigrants would want to live in cities or the suburbs so those areas will continue to grow exponentially whereas outback regions will continue to struggle. You can't blame an immigrant for wanting the trappings of an urban lifestyle as opposed to the relative 'hardships' in the bush. It will be quite a challenge to encourage immigrants into those areas.

 

"Her real point is clear: Gillard wants Australia to "take a breath", slow down its population growth and have immigration numbers driven by regional needs.

The worst kept secret in politics is that Labor's research shows urban congestion has turned the public against high immigration.. For Gillard, there is no easy fix. How much is her method mere electoral politics and how much is a new and viable policy direction?"