20 of the best things to do with kids in Townsville and beyond

From breakfast with the koalas on Maggie Island to Texas-style wagon rides in Charters Towers, no matter your budget, there's plenty to see and do in the sunshine capital of the state!

Originally Published here: 20 of the best things to do with kids in Townsville and beyond

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Government deports ailing senior over visa blunder - Starts at 60


Starts at 60

Government deports ailing senior over visa blunder
Starts at 60
A nearly blind 96-year-old woman with mild dementia has been told she will be deported from Australia only two years after moving here to be with her last surviving family member. The Daily Mail reported that Scottish migrant Christina Grant has been ...

and more »


Originally Published here: Government deports ailing senior over visa blunder - Starts at 60

Immigration officials working with family of Highland pensioner facing deportation - Press and Journal


Press and Journal

Immigration officials working with family of Highland pensioner facing deportation
Press and Journal
A spokeswoman for Australian immigration and Border Protection said: “We're aware of this case and have been working with this individual to resolve her visa status for over 12 months. “All visitors to Australia must hold a valid visa for the duration ...



Originally Published here: Immigration officials working with family of Highland pensioner facing deportation - Press and Journal

Iraqi refugee artist Sameer Dakhil draws inspiration from new home in Australia - ABC Online


ABC Online

Iraqi refugee artist Sameer Dakhil draws inspiration from new home in Australia
ABC Online
Even at the moment he received his humanitarian visa, Dakhil's artist's brain was ticking away. "I started to think what should I give to this lovely country. And I thought about a pen," he says. "It must represent the gratitude from me to Australia ...



Originally Published here: Iraqi refugee artist Sameer Dakhil draws inspiration from new home in Australia - ABC Online

NZ detainees claim abuse on Christmas Island - Radio New Zealand


Radio New Zealand

NZ detainees claim abuse on Christmas Island
Radio New Zealand
Mataia, who said he lost his Australian visa after a two-and-a-half year prison term for robbery, said he had witnessed a detainee next-door to his room get cuffed, elbowed and forced to the ground, where guards stood on his head. When RNZ first spoke ...



Originally Published here: NZ detainees claim abuse on Christmas Island - Radio New Zealand

Immigration Department moves to outsource visa system to avoid cost blow-outs - The Canberra Times


The Canberra Times

Immigration Department moves to outsource visa system to avoid cost blow-outs
The Canberra Times
Private operators would run large parts of Australia's visa system and charge migrants under an Immigration Department plan to avoid cost blow-outs and cope with booming visitor demand. As the country prepares for a surge in tourists and migration, the ...



Originally Published here: Immigration Department moves to outsource visa system to avoid cost blow-outs - The Canberra Times

Government sees sense on skilled visas - The Australian Financial Review


The Australian Financial Review

Government sees sense on skilled visas
The Australian Financial Review
The same day that The Australian Financial Review splashed its front page with a disastrous and embarrassing application of Australia's new work visa rules, the federal government has backflipped on the plan – which might have seen hundreds of foreign ...

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Originally Published here: Government sees sense on skilled visas - The Australian Financial Review

Pack your bags and get out, Australia tells Highland gran aged 96 - Press and Journal


Pack your bags and get out, Australia tells Highland gran aged 96
Press and Journal
But despite believing she was complying with her visa, which stipulates you must leave Australia once a year, it is understood the nonagenarian is about to be deported. Diane has posted a heart-wrenching picture of her mother-in-law online, gripping a ...



Originally Published here: Pack your bags and get out, Australia tells Highland gran aged 96 - Press and Journal

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

BSMQ Update to QSOL: Engineering Technologist

Engineering Technologist (233914) was taken off our Queensland Skilled Occupations Lists on 11 July 2017 – please note we will not be accepting any new EOIs under this occupation from the 12 July 2017 at this stage. We have received a very large number of EOIs for this occupation.

We are currently not issuing any more invitations to lodge an application with BSMQ. However, if some of the current invitees do not respond in the requested time frame, we will issue further invitations to some of those in the current queue.

The post BSMQ Update to QSOL: Engineering Technologist appeared first on BSMQ.



Originally Published here: BSMQ Update to QSOL: Engineering Technologist

Franchise visa rorters in bed with Coalition - MacroBusiness (blog)


Franchise visa rorters in bed with Coalition
MacroBusiness (blog)
The claim, lodged in the Ontario Superior Court, comes weeks after pizza giant Domino's was put in the spotlight in the Senate following an investigation by the competition watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) into ...



Originally Published here: Franchise visa rorters in bed with Coalition - MacroBusiness (blog)

Backpackers told to do their research for visa work - Townsville Bulletin


Townsville Bulletin

Backpackers told to do their research for visa work
Townsville Bulletin
She repeated earlier demands that the Australian Government take a greater oversight of how backpackers are treated by employers in Australia. She particularly criticised the requirement that backpackers wanting a second-year visa had to complete 88 ...

and more »


Originally Published here: Backpackers told to do their research for visa work - Townsville Bulletin

Peter Dutton reverses orderto deport grandmother - The Australian


Peter Dutton reverses orderto deport grandmother
The Australian
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has reversed a decision to deport a South African woman who was refused a visa following a legal ruling that she was not related to her biological sister, who is an Australian citizen. Perth grandmother Linda Oppel ...

and more »


Originally Published here: Peter Dutton reverses orderto deport grandmother - The Australian

Slain backpacker's mum urges reform - The Australian


Sky News

Slain backpacker's mum urges reform
The Australian
Speaking with Australian Story on Monday night, Rosie Ayliffe said the death of her daughter in 2015 had highlighted the dangers faced by backpackers under the working-holiday visa system. "I had to use the publicity around Mia and Tom's deaths to ...
Mia Ayliffe-Chung killing: Backpacker's mother retraces daughter's steps in AustraliaSky News
British backpackers 'propping up Australian farming'SBS

all 8 news articles »


Originally Published here: Slain backpacker's mum urges reform - The Australian

Atlassian's Scott Farquhar calls for reform of STEM teaching, skilled visas - The Australian Financial Review


The Australian Financial Review

Atlassian's Scott Farquhar calls for reform of STEM teaching, skilled visas
The Australian Financial Review
The skills shortage throughout Australia's technology industry would still need to be addressed by the importation of skills, Mr Farquhar said, and he called for reform of the skilled visa system governing this as well. "The industries of the future ...



Originally Published here: Atlassian's Scott Farquhar calls for reform of STEM teaching, skilled visas - The Australian Financial Review

British backpackers 'propping up Australian farming' - SBS


Daily Mail

British backpackers 'propping up Australian farming'
SBS
The mother of Mia Ayliffe-Chung, a British woman killed last August while working in Australia, says Australian farmers are "making huge amounts of money out of our backpackers" which has "got to stop". Rosie Ayliffe has told the BBC that Britons are ...
Mother urges more rights for backpackers working in AustraliaDaily Mail

all 2 news articles »


Originally Published here: British backpackers 'propping up Australian farming' - SBS

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Industry kerfuffle over visa jobs shuffle - ARNnet


ARNnet

Industry kerfuffle over visa jobs shuffle
ARNnet
However, ITPA president, Robert Hudson, believes the latest policy shuffle is not a satisfactory response to the number of workers from overseas that are being bought in to fill low level IT jobs in Australia. With adjustments to the skilled migrant ...



Originally Published here: Industry kerfuffle over visa jobs shuffle - ARNnet

48 Hours in Cape Hillsborough and The Hibiscus Coast

Spend a weekend with Australia’s youngest volcano at Cape Hillsborough and the Hibiscus Coast.

Originally Published here: 48 Hours in Cape Hillsborough and The Hibiscus Coast

Schapelle Corby sings as she celebrates 40th birthday - The West Australian


The West Australian

Schapelle Corby sings as she celebrates 40th birthday
The West Australian
Panangian's ability to secure a visa to Australia is also hampered by his two previous drug convictions. Corby's Instagram followers include longtime supporters who regularly post about the Expendables website, which is a proponent of Corby's innocence ...

and more »


Originally Published here: Schapelle Corby sings as she celebrates 40th birthday - The West Australian

Mia Ayliffe-Chung was killed at Home Hill in regional Queensland in August, 2016 - Daily Mail


Daily Mail

Mia Ayliffe-Chung was killed at Home Hill in regional Queensland in August, 2016
Daily Mail
Mrs Ayliffe says she was unfamiliar with the scheme, that sees tourists aged between 19 and 31 spend 88 days working in the agricultural sector to extend their Australian visas a further year, and hoped the government had safety regulations in place ...
'I just woke up to screaming': Slain backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung's friend remembersBrisbane Times

all 4 news articles »


Originally Published here: Mia Ayliffe-Chung was killed at Home Hill in regional Queensland in August, 2016 - Daily Mail

Mia Ayliffe-Chung: Mother of murdered backpacker calls on Government to make '88 days' farm work scheme safe - ABC Online


ABC Online

Mia Ayliffe-Chung: Mother of murdered backpacker calls on Government to make '88 days' farm work scheme safe
ABC Online
British traveller Mia Ayliffe-Chung took work on a farm in north Queensland so she could extend her visa and spend another year in the country she loved. Days later she was dead. Now her mother has arrived in Australia to lobby for reform of the '88 ...



Originally Published here: Mia Ayliffe-Chung: Mother of murdered backpacker calls on Government to make '88 days' farm work scheme safe - ABC Online

My Oz visa is up but I don't want to go home. What are my options? - Irish Times


Irish Times

My Oz visa is up but I don't want to go home. What are my options?
Irish Times
I'm writing to you from Australia, where I have been on a Working Holiday Visa for the past nine months. I'm loving it here, but with my visa coming to an end, and new visa rules being introduced by immigration here, I feel I need to look beyond ...



Originally Published here: My Oz visa is up but I don't want to go home. What are my options? - Irish Times

Friday, July 7, 2017

DPP case too weak to go before a jury - The Kerryman


DPP case too weak to go before a jury
The Kerryman
... prosecution barrister Siobhán Lankford said the state alleged that in the immediate aftermath of the fatal crash a credit card in Dan Joe Fitzgerald's name was used to pay for his son's ferry fare to the UK, a plane ticket to Australia and an ...



Originally Published here: DPP case too weak to go before a jury - The Kerryman