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Australia August 3, 2011 – As Australia’s skills shortage threatens the growth of the country’s resource industry, driving up salaries and forcing Australian companies to look offshore for labor, many people are now applying work in Australia.

Australia has a massive amount of resource projects in the pipeline, and the Australian federal government is going to adopt the Enterprise Migration Agreements in order to import temporary skilled workers for ‘mega’ projects.

Likewise, as the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has lifted the increase in required minimum nominated salary thresholds or TSMIT for the 457 Australian work visa program in order to keep pace with wage inflation.

Temporary Skilled Migration income threshold (TSMIT) is the minimum salary level at which an employee must be paid in order for a Subclass 457 Business (Long Stay) visa – Standard Business Sponsorship (temporary skilled worker) nomination to be accepted by the DIAC in Australia.

Both of these reasons have caused many people to seek work in Australia.

As many Australian companies already resorting to lucrative salaries for engineers, geologists and other contractors to keep large-scale projects on track, many foreign skilled workers have resulted to not only applying for a Australian working visa but also have the country entered through illegal means.

Many overseas skilled workers are now entering Australia illegally, with an estimated 50,000 skilled workers or more are already in the country.

In order to resolve this illegal migrant problem, the Australian government had introduced new labor legislations that deal with the problem from the demand side – by penalizing those who employs anyone who is in the country illegally.

However, employer interests placing pressure on the provisions of the act have caused them to weaken before it became law.

Now, a review was undertaken on the weakened provisions and was discovered that these provisions do not really work and should be improved or upgraded, with a more stringent liability for employers who are found and convicted of hiring illegal immigrants.

This means that in order for employers to avoid being penalized, they should check and ensure that those they employ have the proper legal documentations like an approved working visa Australia so that they will be able to work legally in Australia.

A regular proper check-up of employee’s documentation could boost the number of Australia working visa applicants, as more jobs will be available to them if these visa over-stayers are stopped.

source:
smh.com.au