BN
smells like wee wee
+159|7057
What does everyone think about Australia's immigration policy right now?

We are about to hit 22million in population. 2/3 growth of our population is by immigration.

We don't have enough water (in a lot of parts)
We don't have enough jobs
Housing is becoming less affordable.


I think we need to stop giving out Permanent Residency like tic-tacs. PR's should not access to Medicare. They should have to pay. Nor should they have access to public funds.

We also need to start cutting back "Family Allowance" AKA middle class welfare. (for all Australian's)


Thoughts?
imortal
Member
+240|6954|Austin, TX
Sounds like you are having some of the same probelms we are having.  Good luck, have fun with that.
FatherTed
xD
+3,936|6790|so randum
i thought you guys had a pretty strict immigration policy?
Small hourglass island
Always raining and foggy
Use an umbrella
BVC
Member
+325|6985
I have a few friends who've jumped across the ditch, all skilled workers and they've never had any issues.  AFAIK, Aussie rules for Kiwis making the move are now the same as anywhere else.
ATG
Banned
+5,233|6819|Global Command
Welcome to the NWO.
AussieReaper
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
+5,761|6442|what

Where are you hearing that shit BN?

Our water levels are low but it's not zomg we're running out. Australia is often in periods of drought. Hello, it's Australia... And the Australian govt. has already invested heavily into the desalination plants, housing is less affordable now due to the GFC, (something you may not have taken into account). And our unemployment is 5.8%

Care to guess the unemployment rate of the US right now? It's at 9.5%

So if you want to tell me we're running out of jobs, that's fine. But try to have a look at how well our employment situation currently is, in the middle of a global financial crisis Australia is one of the best faring nations at the moment and has been throughout.

Changing the immigration policy isn't going to change any of those factors. You will however lose skilled and unskilled labour, from immigrants coming into the country.

As for your Permanent Residency gripe, it isn't handed out like tic-tacs. Most workers come here on a temporary visa, and either find permanent full time employment or at the very least a stable income and permanent residence or the visa expires and they are deported.

And of course PR's should have access to Medicare. As a PR they pay plenty of taxes. Unless you'd think it would be a great money making scheme to force PR onto the private health system. Gee, I wonder what will happen if private health insurance companies know they can force new Australian citizens to pay their service and only their service... premiums would go up.

Our model of health care is to have a competitive system of private and public health, and our public health is larger and more affordable because all tax payers put in towards Medicare. There is no great financial drain on the economy because having a healthy population increases the productivity and GDP. If you want to force people onto private health care, and new PR I might add, who often are not earning above middle incomes, what do you think is going to happen? Because you'll be forcing them onto health care plans they can't afford.

Last edited by AussieReaper (2009-07-23 18:48:32)

https://i.imgur.com/maVpUMN.png
BN
smells like wee wee
+159|7057

AussieReaper wrote:

Our water levels are low but it's not zomg we're running out
Our water levels in Victoria are more than low. We have been in drought and water restrictions for 7 years. The longest period ever. Farmers are  paying their "water rights" but only receiving 20% of the allocated water. Victoria's water catchments are down to 26.9% capacity.

AussieReaper wrote:

Care to guess the unemployment rate of the US right now? It's at 9.5%
I don't care about unemployment in the US. I talking about Australia. And yes, we are doing ok. But we should be doing a hell of a lot better.
Losing skilled and unskilled labour in this country is not a bad thing. Especially the unskilled. Australian's would be forced to upskill which is a positive thing. And, putting money into the economy.


There are PR scams all over Asia and India. As exposed on the "Insight" program this week. Hence the Government changing the list of eligible studies that PR is available for.
There are "education agents" in Asia putting ads in papers saying "Get Your PR" and in small writing "through a university". They are not selling education, they are selling PR and they are shameless about it.

Education in Australia is a multi billion dollar industry and it needs to be more regulated.

PR's are easy to get. My friends have had them and laughed at how easy it was.

My friend was in tricked into a scam marriage. Once the wife get her PR, she left him. He reported it to immigration and they said "there is not much we can do".


CERTIFICATE III in

    * COOKERY
    * COMMUNITY WELFARE
    * GRAPHIC DESIGNING & PREPRESS
    * HAIRDRESSING
    * DENTAL TECHNICIAN
    * HORTICULTURE

Will get you PR. Hairdressing? Horticulture? This is not a scam but a failure by our current Government.
thraSK
Best ___ in Aus
+57|6272
From what i've heard from friends and other people, pr is a bitch to get. It's a tangle of red tape :S
Cheez
Herman is a warmaphrodite
+1,027|6728|King Of The Islands

FatherTed wrote:

i thought you guys had a pretty strict immigration policy?
Sure do.

https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/3303554402_8bf21d9f67.jpg

The problem is they can't speak English.
My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.
Spark
liquid fluoride thorium reactor
+874|6964|Canberra, AUS

Cheez wrote:

FatherTed wrote:

i thought you guys had a pretty strict immigration policy?
Sure do.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/330 … 1d9f67.jpg

The problem is they can't speak English.
The vast majority can.

There's this skills shortage, y'know...
The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling what reality ought to be.
~ Richard Feynman
Cybargs
Moderated
+2,285|7006
Australia gets a lot of money from rich Asian immigrants k.
https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png
Noobeater
Northern numpty
+194|6736|Boulder, CO

thraSK wrote:

From what i've heard from friends and other people, pr is a bitch to get. It's a tangle of red tape :S
Thats what I've heard too.
Little BaBy JESUS
m8
+394|6438|'straya
Legal immigration of skilled, tax paying workers is fine. Illegal immigration of unskilled, non tax paying persons is not. (this does not necessarily mean "boat people" and the like, I heard somewhere that the largest percentage of illegal immigrants in Australia are from the UK)
Burwhale
Save the BlobFish!
+136|6512|Brisneyland
Immigration was encouraged under the previous govt because we had an ageing population and we lacked skilled workers to supply the mining boom. The QLD state govt is already cutting back on its skilled migrant intake. Other states will possibly follow.
Do you want us to say , "thanks for your hard work in the good times, If you could kindly fuck off now that would be great"?
As for no access to Medicare, as Aus Reaper said, they pay taxes, why discriminate?

BN wrote:

And yes, we are doing ok. But we should be doing a hell of a lot better.
I dont know how you figure this. Sure its nice to do better, but we are one of the top performing countries right now, unemployment is very low, and we havent even entered into a technical recession yet, so realistically things are very good.

BN wrote:

We also need to start cutting back "Family Allowance" AKA middle class welfare. (for all Australian's)
I do agree with this on many levels though. We are pretty much giving the govt tax, then having them give it straight back to us. It was a vote buying strategy of Little Johnny howard, but it would be a brave labor govt that gets rid of it.
The Henry reveiw may advise it should be changed though.
Krappyappy
'twice cooked beef!'
+111|7109
immigration is a lot like gas diffusion - it will go from high concentration to low concentration, no matter what you do.

sure you can make policy and put up barriers or build fences, but if the difference in concentration is big enough, the pressure will overcome any obstacle. people will find a way, even if it involves crossing the pacific in a bathtub.

whether you're australia or the us - it's futile to fight it. the rest of the world is more crowded than you are, and until you REALLY are full, people will go there.

all you can do is hope that they bring some good looking women along.
FatherTed
xD
+3,936|6790|so randum

Cheez wrote:

FatherTed wrote:

i thought you guys had a pretty strict immigration policy?
Sure do.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/330 … 1d9f67.jpg

The problem is they can't speak English.
Don't you have some sort of points system though, and only allow people with a skillset applicable to current job shortages?

Also i remember hearing about how your government wouldn't let a few ships with immigrants dock, you just told them to fuck off.
Small hourglass island
Always raining and foggy
Use an umbrella
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,817|6395|eXtreme to the maX
Water - Australia grossly mismanages its water, flood irrigation, growing the wrong things inthe wrong area, trying to produce dairy produce in a desert when the NZers have more than enough to sell us, building desalination plants when we don't even collect the rainwater which falls on our roofs.

PR - Its not simple to get PR, its not handed out like tic-tacs or the whole world would be here. I needed a degree in an in-demand occupation and four years work experience to get PR.

Skilled migrants - Australia simply isn't producing enough skilled people to do the jobs here.

The family allowance is just dumb, bribing people to have more kids doesn't make a lot of sense.
Fuck Israel
Burwhale
Save the BlobFish!
+136|6512|Brisneyland

Fr Ted wrote:

Also i remember hearing about how your government wouldn't let a few ships with immigrants dock, you just told them to fuck off.
I think the story was:
A boatload of illegal immigrants was basically sinking off our waters. They were rescued by a container ship. International law states that a country must accept people in distress, which would include those on the container ship. The previous govt wanted to make political points at a time when people were scared of terrorism etc, and refused to take the people from the ship.

This worked for a while but people started to see through it as a vote grab.

Last edited by Burwhale (2009-07-24 07:19:56)

Hakei
Banned
+295|6285
I moved over from England on an apprenticeship deal - worked for a few months and now I'm getting rental assistance and payment from the government. I actually need to go down to Centrelink tomorrow to ask for a higher payment, thanks for reminding me.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,817|6395|eXtreme to the maX
As for immigration policy, seems about right, otherwise we would be flooded.
Fuck Israel
Turquoise
O Canada
+1,596|6695|North Carolina
Why not just limit your immigration to highly skilled, highly educated, and/or wealthy people?  Proficiency in English would also help.
Red Forman
Banned
+402|5690

Turquoise wrote:

Why not just limit your immigration to highly skilled, highly educated, and/or wealthy people?  Proficiency in English would also help.
What about the unskilled, uneducated, and poor people in your country already?
Turquoise
O Canada
+1,596|6695|North Carolina

Red Forman wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

Why not just limit your immigration to highly skilled, highly educated, and/or wealthy people?  Proficiency in English would also help.
What about the unskilled, uneducated, and poor people in your country already?
We have a surplus of those, as does Australia.  They are the ones who typically do the work no one else wants to.

The problem is that America and Australia still import too many of these people, and if you go too far with that, you get more crime and disease.  We've definitely experienced that here, but I don't know as much with Australia.
Red Forman
Banned
+402|5690

Turquoise wrote:

Red Forman wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

Why not just limit your immigration to highly skilled, highly educated, and/or wealthy people?  Proficiency in English would also help.
What about the unskilled, uneducated, and poor people in your country already?
We have a surplus of those, as does Australia.  They are the ones who typically do the work no one else wants to.

The problem is that America and Australia still import too many of these people, and if you go too far with that, you get more crime and disease.  We've definitely experienced that here, but I don't know as much with Australia.
I don't agree they do jobs people don't want to.  I used to cut lawns and such.  Its very hard to not hire people who are willing to do that same job for little pay.
Turquoise
O Canada
+1,596|6695|North Carolina

Red Forman wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

Red Forman wrote:


What about the unskilled, uneducated, and poor people in your country already?
We have a surplus of those, as does Australia.  They are the ones who typically do the work no one else wants to.

The problem is that America and Australia still import too many of these people, and if you go too far with that, you get more crime and disease.  We've definitely experienced that here, but I don't know as much with Australia.
I don't agree they do jobs people don't want to.  I used to cut lawns and such.  Its very hard to not hire people who are willing to do that same job for little pay.
Yep, and if you continue far enough in that direction, you create a massive underclass.

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