Dear Guest,

If you’ve seen the Media Centre on our website (http://www.liveinaustralia.com/home/media_centre.asp), you’re probably thinking, “Man, this guy can talk!” Well, you’re 100% correct, Guest. Migration and Australia are my biggest passions in life and after bribing our Marketing and Client Services Manager with a bottle of red, he agreed to let me do a short introduction for each edition of LIAISON.

We achieved a significant milestone this week: 10,000 Visa Preparation Service (VPS) clients. This service helped revolutionise the provision of immigration advice in Australia and is still going strong after LIVE IN australia.com^® was established in 2001. In fact, we have assisted over 60,000 Clients and their families in migrating to Australia.

This is an exciting time to be considering a move to our great country, as the strength of the Australian economy has generated unprecedented opportunity for skilled workers. There are currently 86 occupations listed (as at 20 September 2006) on the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL), including Toolmakers, Pastry Cooks, Sonographers, Civil Engineers…the list goes on.

If you’ve completed our free Online Immigration Assessment and you’re eligible now, please don’t delay. We want to make sure you have the best chance of success with your application and our fully qualified and dedicated Advisors are ready to help you, Guest.

As usual, there’s a great range of useful information in this edition of LIAISON, so please enjoy!

Best Regards,

Assyl Haidar
CEO

Simply click on the links below to automatically scroll down the page of the latest LIVE IN australia.com^® news. Click on ‘TOP’ to return to the top of the page:

1. DIMIA to DIMA to DIAC
2. Major changes to Skilled Migration
3. Skilled Meat Workers offered a stake in Queensland
4. Top Australian Mathematician sums up opportunities
5. Staff profile
6. On the Road Again
7. A Town like Alice
8. Recipe: The Great Aussie Pie!
9. In Brief

DIMIA to DIMA to DIAC
The Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) has changed its name to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

Announcing the change, Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, said “I think the title of the new department expresses the desire and the aspiration … that people who come to this country… become Australians”. The Hon Kevin Andrews MP was appointed as the new Minister of Immigration and Citizenship. What difference will this name change make to potential immigrants? None at all.

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Major changes to Skilled Migration
To ensure you have every chance of success with your visa application, Guest, LIVE IN australia.com^® Advisors attend seminars conducted by the Government and specialist organisations regularly.

LIA Senior Advisor, Evonne Chua, attended a seminar recently conducted by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Evonne reported that DIAC is aiming to introduce many important changes to general skilled migration in July 2007, in the areas of:

• English language threshold requirements
• Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL)
• Work experience requirements
• Bonus points
• Lodgement of visa applications
• Visa restructure
• New graduate visas
  …and the list goes on!

Any cause for concern? If you’ve paid for professional advice from one of our Advisors like Evonne, then you can rest assured that your application is in the best hands possible, Guest. We have the knowledge and we have the experience to ensure you maximise your chance of success. Our recommendation: don’t delay! If you are eligible now, make sure you apply before July 1 2007.

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Skilled Meat Workers offered a stake in Queensland
A labour agreement for the entry of skilled meat workers to Queensland has been finalised by Kevin Andrews, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and John Mickel, Queensland Minister for State Development, Employment and Industrial Relations.

'An unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent, a 30-year low, has resulted in temporary shortages of some skilled workers in the Australian meat industry, which could adversely affect the growth of this important industry,' Mr. Andrews said.

The agreement provides for strict skills assessment requirements and a minimum salary requirement of at least $41,850 (the minimum salary level for migration), or the relevant industrial instrument, whichever is the higher.

'The Australian Government will work with other state governments to enable the meat industry to recruit the skilled overseas workers it needs to keep Australian businesses operating,' Mr. Andrews added.

Skilled overseas meat workers interested in the new Queensland plan should check their qualifications and start the ball rolling now.

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Top Australian Mathematician sums up opportunities
When we think of skilled migration, Mathematician is one job that probably doesn’t spring to mind. However, University of Melbourne professor, Hyam Rubinstein, warns Australia's ability to win contracts for high-tech causes is at risk, owing to a looming shortage of mathematicians.

Professor Rubinstein chaired the recent Australian Academy of Science review of maths and statistics. He revealed that industry warned the Inquiry that Australia’s competitive advantage in fields like data analysis, forecasting, finance and banking systems, IT and national security might suffer, as this science is crucial to most areas of modern technology.

For any overseas mathematician engaged in industry, commerce or academic fields, this could be a very good time to contact LIA and calculate the advantages of entering Australian mathematics.

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Staff Profile

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On the Road Again
The Herald-Sun/Citylink Run for Kids is coming up in April 2007 and LIA staff will again pull on their jogging shoes.

The 15.2km event is a "round trip" of Melbourne's best-known landmarks. Our intrepid runners will puff past the Myer Music Bowl, through the Domain over the Bolte Bridge with its million dollar Docklands views and return through the city. Finally they’ll sprint along beside the Arts Centre before finishing back in Linlithgow Avenue, near Government House and the Shrine of Remembrance.

Good luck to all! Funds raised go to The Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

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A Town like Alice
Australia is famous for its surf and oceanic sports, but you can’t get much further from a beach than Alice Springs.

Almost in the exact center of the continent, Alice Springs is a town of 26,486 some 1200 km from the nearest ocean and 1500 km from the nearest major cities, Darwin and Adelaide. Alice Springs is the midpoint of The Ghan, the railway linking Adelaide and Darwin. ‘The Alice’, as it’s colloquially known, was established as a frontier settlement for north-south travel by camel trains through the desert. A telegraph station was placed near a permanent waterhole named Alice Springs, after the wife of the Postmaster general of South Australia.

While remote, Alice Springs has a booming economy and is one of Australia's wealthiest towns, owing to tourism (500,000+ tourists per year), major government funding and income derived from the US Pine Gap satellite tracking station.

‘The Alice’ is one of hundreds of Australian towns and cities that need and welcome skilled immigrants. Many have already settled there. Many more are invited to bring their skills to town and build rewarding and satisfying new lives.

Links to ‘The Alice’:
Town Council - http://www.alicesprings.nt.gov.au/
Tourism - http://www.travelnt.com/en/explore/alice-springs/

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Recipe: The Great Aussie Pie!
If there is one, singular Australian tradition, it must be the The Great Aussie Meat Pie. Sometimes round, sometimes square but always delicious, they’re wolfed down at sporting events all year round. The Pie is certainly a national institution. While they overwhelmingly contain good Australian beef, you can get crocodile pies, kangaroo pies, venison pies and many other types of meat pie. Here is one of hundreds of recipes. Try it. You’ll like it.

Ingredients:

Filling 750g(1 1/2lbs) minced steak 2 beef stock cubes 1tsp soy sauce 1 1/2 cups water pinch nutmeg 2tbsp plain flour salt and pepper another 1/4 cup water

Pie base 2 cups plain flour 2/3 cup water 1/2tsp salt 1tbsp beef dripping

Pie top 1 packet puff pastry 1 egg yolk 1tsp water

Method
Place meat in a saucepan, stir over low heat until meat is well browned. Drain surplus fat. Add crumbled stock cubes, water, salt and pepper, nutmeg.

Stir until boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes, then remove from heat. Combine extra water and flour. Stir till smooth, and then add the flour mixture to the meat. Stir till combined thoroughly. Return to heat, stir till meat boils and thickens, then add soy sauce and mix thoroughly. Simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow cooling.

To make the base
Sift the flour and salt together in a bowl. Place water and dripping in a saucepan. Stir till dripping melts, then remove from heat. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients, add the liquid, and stir till combined. Turn out on a lightly floured board and knead lightly. Roll out pastry to line 8 small greased pie tins. Cut off excess pastry and fill the base with cold meat filling.

Piecrust (top)
Make up puff pastry (according to directions on packet). Roll out on a lightly floured board, and then cut into rounds for top of pies (use a saucer as a guide for size). Wet edges of base pastry and gently press tops into place. Then trim edges with a sharp knife. Brush tops with combined egg yolk and water.

Bake in a hot oven for 5 minutes until golden brown, reduce heat to moderate and bake a further 10 minutes.

Slop on tomato sauce and eat!

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IN BRIEF

More Midlanders heading Down Under
The Midlands is now near the top UK regions for emigration Down Under with 36,000 people leaving in 2004 compared with 24,000 in 1995. Recent seminars at Kenilworth, in Warwickshire, explained how people can make the move. Louise Di Dato from Rugby, said "Australia seems to be growing and the quality of life for families seems to be more important," she said.
Seminar organizer, Paul Arthur, said Australia needs skilled workers from abroad to fill an estimated 99,600 job vacancies.

Aussie Word of the Month
Within Cooee: Within easy distance/within earshot. Derived from the ‘Cooee call’ used by bush dwellers to locate each other.
The Aussie word in action: LIA, Australia’s original and most successful high tech on-line visa specialist is within Cooee for skilled workers around the world.


Best Regards,

Peter Seers
Marketing & Client Services Manager