Category Archives: Australian immigration and asylum

Only a matter of time before someone is killed in Australian immigration detention, detainees say

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As average detention period blows out to a record 700 days, people inside say centres are rife with violence, drugs, and overcrowding

People held in Australia’s immigration detention centres say violence inside has become so normalised that it’s only a matter of time before someone is killed.

Severe overcrowding, the easy availability of drugs and an influx of “501s” – non-citizens who have had their visas cancelled for a criminal conviction – have made conditions inside centres such as Sydney’s Villawood intolerable, detainees say.

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Increased migration must come with planning and expanded services, councils say

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Fairfield mayor says ‘people are suffering’ due to lack of affordable housing in migrant communities as PM pledges $575m investment

Increasing Australia’s migration intake without improving key services will increase the strain on housing, hospitals and schools as well as inflation, councils in migrant communities have said.

The Albanese government on Friday announced at its jobs and skills summit it would lifting the migrant intake to 195,000 in 2022-23, from the current 160,000 cap, addressing calls from businesses for more skilled workers to be brought in to Australia to meet shortages. A review planned for next February would set intake levels for coming years.

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Labor to relax work tests for pensioners following jobs and skills summit – as it happened

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the policy change will cost around $55m, and the government will do further costs. This blog is now closed

Tasmanian Tafe needs to be fit for purpose before additional places can make a difference, Lambie says

The government yesterday kicked off the jobs and skills summit with the announcement of 180,000 more free Tafe places.

We certainly would like to do more, but some of these issues, of course, are within the budget constraints, which are there … we have inherited $1tn of debt. Yes, it is a worthy idea and worthy of consideration.

No, that’s not on the agenda. But it is a good thing that people are able to put forward ideas.

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Labor pledges ‘immediate’ workplace changes at jobs summit – as it happened

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The first day of the jobs and skills summit is under way in Canberra. This blog is now closed

Every Australian ‘holds a stake’ in outcome of jobs and skills summit, PM says

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, finishes his opening address at the jobs and skills summit on a note of wanting to promote unity. He says:

Australians have conflict fatigue.

Every Australian holds a stake in the outcome of our discussion.

The work of building a stronger economy should include everyone, should lift everyone up.

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Labor urged to improve work rights for people on bridging visas amid skilled migration push

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Call comes as one government MP says jobs summit focus must not detract from dealing with massive backlog of humanitarian visas

The government is being urged to look at improving work rights for people on bridging visas already in Australia, and not to neglect the backlog of humanitarian visas amid calls for an increase to the skilled migration intake.

There is widespread expectation the government will boost Australia’s skilled migration intake from around 160,000 people a year to 200,000 people, with consensus among unions and industry that the cap needs to be lifted.

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Business cuts to on-the-job training have made Australia increasingly reliant on migrants, experts say

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Academic says companies ‘squealing’ to government about worker skill shortage are contributing to it

Businesses have demanded governments invest more in skills training even as they reduce such spending themselves, leaving Australia reliant on skilled migrants to avoid falling further behind comparable nations, academics and unions say.

The assessment, made public days before the jobs and skills summit in Canberra, comes as the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, released draft legislation on Monday that would give $1.5bn in tax incentives for small businesses to lift the skills of employees.

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First refugee families welcomed to Australia under new community sponsorship program

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Shadi Al Daoud says chance for family to restart their lives on NSW Central Coast with support of local church is a dream come true

Ten-year-old George Al Daoud arrives in Australia with a declaration. “My English is … medium,” he announces, smiling broadly.

George and his family are among the fortunate first to be resettled in Australia under the new Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot, which allows community groups across the country to sponsor new refugees.

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Business lobby joins unions in calling for lift in minimum wages for skilled visa workers

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Business Council of Australia also calls for migrant intake boost as Greens set up Senate standoff to raise wages in female-dominated industries

Big business has agreed with unions that the pay floor for temporary skilled visa workers should be raised to $90,000,in a split with smaller employer organisations that warned this could “kill” migration.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has also called for a two-year boost to the annual migration intake to 220,000 a year in a submission ahead of next week’s jobs and skills summit.

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‘Free riders’: NSW unions want to charge non-members for pay rises they broker

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Exclusive: Peak body also wants employers to pay skilled visa applicants 30% above median wage to encourage local training instead

Non-union workers would be forced to pay fees for union pay deals while the requirement to advertise jobs domestically, before sponsoring foreign workers, would be abolished in favour of a higher wage floor, under two proposals by Unions NSW.

Under the plan employers could be forced to pay a skilled visa applicant 30% above the industry median wage before sponsoring an offshore worker, a move designed to incentivise training Australians.

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Indonesian boys wrongly imprisoned by Australia ask attorney general for new appeal

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Exclusive: Lawyers for two Indonesian children wrongly jailed for people smuggling ask Mark Dreyfus to refer case for appeal, calling Christian Porter’s ruling on the case a ‘mockery of justice’

Two Indonesian children who were imprisoned as adult people smugglers using deeply flawed evidence have asked attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, to use his mercy powers and resolve the “mockery of justice” overseen by his predecessor Christian Porter.

Earlier this year, Guardian Australia used a trove of internal documents to reveal how federal police had placed fictitious dates of birth on sworn legal documents to prosecute eight Indonesian children as adult people smugglers, relying on a wrist X-ray age assessment technique they knew at the time to be questionable.

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Unions and employers agree 40,000 more migrants a year needed to fill Australia’s skills shortage

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Consensus on migration and increasing subsidies for apprentices could pave way for policy reform at government’s jobs and skills summit

Unions and employers have agreed Australia should lift its migration intake by 40,000 annually to help fill skills shortages and demanded a boost to apprentice subsidies.

The consensus suggests the Albanese government could secure broad support for some policy reform at its jobs and skills summit in September, although the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Acci) will use a major speech on Wednesday to reject more ambitious union requests.

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Canstruct loses lucrative Nauru offshore processing contract to US prisons operator with controversial record

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Management and Training Corporation is set to take over running Australia’s immigration regime on the island

Canstruct has lost the lucrative contract to run Australia’s offshore immigration regime on Nauru with the Brisbane firm to be replaced by a US-headquartered private prisons operator that has a controversial past.

Sources have told the Guardian that Canstruct’s current contract, set to end on 30 September, will not be renewed and from 1 October “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” will be run by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) Australia.

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Labor vows to prioritise Australian jobs as it eyes migration boost

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Annual intake could potentially rise from 160,000 to up to 200,000 places as businesses cry out for skilled workers

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has vowed Labor “will always prioritise jobs for Australians” as the government eyes increasing the migration cap potentially to 200,000 places per year.

A boost from the current annual migration intake of 160,000 will be on the table at the federal government’s jobs and skills summit next month.

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Daniel Andrews backs federal plan to boost migration – as it happened

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Labor’s plan to tackle skills shortages would lift the annual migration cap from 160,000 to between 180,000 and 200,000. This blog is now closed

Bowen says climate reforms will help Australian industry avoid carbon tariffs

Bowen says how this will work has yet to be determined and gives a nod to an upcoming discussion paper, with the details to be hammered out in consultation with industry. But he raises some interesting points that this needs to happen as there is a growing risk Australian industry will be exposed to carbon tariffs if nothing changes.

This will help us avoid these, by showing the EU and the rest of the world, you don’t need to slap tariffs on our manufacturers and our producers because Australia is working with industry to get emissions down in a very sensible way.

The safeguard mechanism is taking the 315 biggest emissions and working with them to reduce emissions, because if we don’t, we will continue the 10 years of no reductions from those facilities and it won’t cut the mustard.

Any facility which emits more than 100,000 tonnes … whether it is new or existing, which is just increasing its activity, we are not having the same architecture. They will be put on a trajectory to net zero, facility by facility. We have designed this in a very sensible way.

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Child left ‘stateless’ after estranged Australian father couldn’t be reached for DNA test, court hears

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In decision quashed by federal court, citizenship application was rejected despite father’s name on birth certificate and Medicare card

The Department of Home Affairs rejected an Australian-born child’s citizenship application after her estranged Australian father couldn’t be reached to provide a DNA test, which her lawyer says rendered her “stateless”.

In a decision quashed by the federal court, the overseas-born mother of the child was told the department did not have proof of a biological link to the father – despite his name being listed on the girl’s birth certificate and Medicare card, his payment of child support and photos of the pair together.

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Coalition used private contractor to collect intelligence on Nauru asylum seekers

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Exclusive: asylum seekers in the offshore detention centre who had contact with Australian journalists, lawyers and advocates were closely watched, documents reveal

The Australian government used private security contractors to collect intelligence on asylum seekers on Nauru, singling out those who were speaking to journalists, lawyers and refugee advocates, internal documents from 2016 reveal.

Intelligence officers working for Wilson Security compiled fortnightly reports about asylum seekers “of interest”, including individuals flagged as having “links with [Australian] media”, “contact with lawyers in Australia” or “contacts with Australian advocates”.

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Righter than right: Tories’ hardline drift may lose the public

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Polls suggest leadership race may be going further than even Conservatives might want on immigration, economy and climate

It is a thread running through the Conservative leadership campaign, as shown through the apparent desire to be toughest on asylum seekers, the biggest advocate of tax cuts, sceptical about net zero measures: this is a party that feels like it has shifted decisively to the right.

Some argue the arms race of populist policies from Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak exemplifies a new Conservatism, one fundamentally altered by Brexit and Boris Johnson, which has gradually absorbed the priorities of those who used to support Ukip.

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Coalition ‘subverted democracy’ with election-day statement on asylum boat, Labor says

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Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil says former government’s pressuring of public servants to reveal boat arrival was ‘unprecedented’

The former Morrison government subverted Australia’s democracy, undermined the public service and endangered members of the defence force when it pressured public servants to reveal details of an asylum seeker boat on election day, home affairs minister Clare O’Neil has said, lambasting the former government for its “disgraceful” actions.

O’Neil said those members of the government involved should “hang their heads in shame” and apologise for pressuring public servants and defence officials to issue the statement over the intercepted boat – an occurrence that was then used as a final-hours campaign tool.

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‘Disgraceful’: report reveals Morrison government pressured border force to promote election day boat arrival

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Labor says action by former government ‘sabotaged’ protocols for political gain and was ‘without precedent’ in Australian history

Morrison government staff pressured the Australian Border Force to draft and issue a statement about an asylum seeker boat intercepted on election day before the operation had finished, a damning departmental report has found.

Labor’s home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, released the report on Friday and accused the former Coalition government of having “sabotaged the protocols that protect Operation Sovereign Borders for political gain” in an incident “without precedent”.

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Australia news live updates: Greens aim to ‘improve and pass’ Labor climate bill; Andrews rules out mask mandates as nation records 90 Covid deaths;

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No change in Operation Sovereign Borders policy

Clare O’Neil is asked about the desperate situation in Sri Lanka, where many people are trying to find a way out.

Operation Sovereign Borders is Australian government policy.

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