Saturday, April 24, 2010

Real Estate and Temporary Residents

It was announced today (click HERE for the Assistant Treasurer's full press release) that the government has done a back flip on the policy changes that it made last year in relation to the purchase of real estate by temporary residents.

Effective immediately, there will be a tightening of policy that will require all temporary residents to be screened and approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

There have been concerns that investment by foreigners and temporary residents is pushing up property prices and effectively making housing unaffordable for residents and citizens.

Some of the key changes include:
  1. there will be power to compel sale of the property after the temporary resident departs Australia
  2. if vacant land has been purchased then if construction is not commenced within 24 months then there will also be power for the compulsory sale
  3. there will also be expanded monitoring and also a new civil penalty regime (up until now there have only been criminal sanctions). Civil penalties will include the power of compulsory divestment of property acquired in breach of the new regulations.
It will be interesting to see if this makes any difference. Surely foreign investment is only one of a number of factors driving the housing market and not the controlling factor?

Creative commons attribution for the photograph:

Monday, April 19, 2010

Business Visa Changes

There are some changes to the requirements for business skills visas effective from today, most of which are designed to improve the integrity of the program.

The key changes are:
  1. The current requirement is for a 10% ownership interest in a main business. This will be changed to 10% if the business is operated by a publicly listed company OR 30% if the business is not listed but has a turnover of more than A$400,000 OR 51% if the turnover is less than A$400,000
  2. The threshold amount of personal and business assets that the applicant and spouse must have is increased from A$500,000 (set in March 2003) to A$800,000
  3. The assets threshold amount for the state sponsored version of the visa is increasing from A$250,000 to A$500,000
  4. The option of qualifying for a visa on the basis of being a "senior manager" in an eligible business has been removed. Senior managers will be encouraged to apply for employer nominated visas (either ENS or RSMS) or the business skills (as opposed to business owner) class
I take it from these amendments that too many "small business" people have been granted this visa, when the objective is obviously the establishment of bigger enterprises.

I will update the summary of information on my website as soon as I can, but the explanatory memoranda (easier to read than the actual regulation) is on the Comlaw website - click HERE.

Creative commons attribution

Friday, April 9, 2010

Asylum visa processing ceases


In a press release this morning the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship announced:

"Effective immediately, the Australian Government has today introduced a suspension of the processing of new asylum applications from Sri Lanka [for 3 months] and Afghanistan [for 6 months]".

Click HERE for the full text of the press release.

The suspension won't affect anyone who is already on Christmas Island.

There are apparently also even tougher people smuggling laws on the way:

"New laws will provide tougher penalties and introduce new offences to deter people who support, participate in or profit from people smuggling.

The Anti-People Smuggling and Other Measures Bill has been introduced into Parliament. The Government wants it passed in the week Parliament resumes in May.

The Bill includes a new offence targeting those who finance or provide support for people smuggling activities, as well as tough penalties that recognise the seriousness of people smuggling offences. The Bill:

  • creates a new offence of providing material support for people smuggling with a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment and/or a fine of $110 000
  • creates a new offence of people smuggling involving exploitation or danger of death or serious harm, applying to ventures entering Australia, with a maximum penalty of twenty years imprisonment and/or a fine of $220 000
  • ensures that where a person is convicted of multiple people smuggling offences, mandatory minimum penalties set out in the Migration Act are applied
  • provides greater clarity and consistency by harmonising people smuggling offences in the Migration Act and the Criminal Code.

The Bill also supports the Government’s multi pronged approach in combating people smuggling by enabling the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to use its intelligence and analytical capabilities in relation to people smuggling and other serious border security threats."

It remains to be seen whether all this help the problem of boats of asylum seekers arriving (almost) every day - let's hope it does.

Photograph used pursuant to creative commons licence.