DIAC has announced changes to the time of lodgement of IELTS results for many skilled visas. Please visit META News to access the full story.

The ANZ Job Advertisements Series research into the Australian employment market has shown a continued acceleration in Australian job advertisements over the past month.

This is further evidence of the mildness of the downturn Australia experienced over the past 18 months and is an indicator of a slow and steady recovery.

I hope that on this occasion, instead of pandering to the demands of trade unions seeking to justify their existence by keeping skilled migration numbers down, DIAC takes a courageous stand and reminds Australia why it elected the Rudd Government.

Sen Evans, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship should make a strategic decision to open up immigration pathways now, so that Australia will have the future skilled workforce it needs as one of the first western economies to recover from the global downturn.

The damage the Indian Government and Mr Gupta’s comments have done to Indian people’s perception of Australia is considerable and I respectfully suggest that in future both the Government spokesperson and Mr Gupta stop and think before making unsubstantiated claims of racially motivated violence…the time to make claims of racism is when it has been proven – and not a second sooner.