Australia’s mining boom is great news for UK migrants

A shortage of skilled workers across Australia is forcing many businesses to look to countries like the UK to bring in help.

Salaries across Western Australia are rocketing; a recent survey by Australia’s Commonwealth Bank showing that the blue-collar workforce in some parts of Western Australia enjoys wages 62pc higher than the national average.Even truck drivers are now getting paid salaries of A$150,000 to A$180,000 (£96,000 to £116,000) with a little training. The more skilled professionals whose experience commands a premium – mining engineers, resource geologists – are in even tighter supply.

Such are the opportunities and wages on offer that it is estimated more than 100,000 Australians have moved to the mining towns. Many work as so-called FIFOs, who “Fly In and Fly Out” for their jobs, and the numbers moving has meant that thousands of vacancies have appeared in the hospitality and catering sector in Perth.

Australia desperately needs skilled workers from the UK to work in the mining, construction and healthcare industries amongst others. If you are interested in a new job and new life in Australia, then make sure you visit Down Under Live, the UK’s number one emigration and recruitment services event, taking place in February 2012. You can meet recruiters and employers, as well as finding out more about a life downunder.

Source http://www.australiamagazine.co.uk/?p=1082

A veteran agent provocateur

BRUCE Ruxton expressed his strong opinions in such a provocative fashion that he quickly carved out a one-dimensional public image. He used his notoriety, and his sharply incendiary tongue, to attract attention to the causes he and many other members of the Returned and Services League supported. Railing against politically correct attitudes, he supported populist and often legitimate positions relating to the republic, immigration and indigenous rights, but did so with such divisive and demeaning language that he sometimes undermined his own arguments.

In more than 20 years as the Victorian RSL president, Ruxton took few backward steps, but he did at least express regret for suggesting Archbishop Desmond Tutu might be a witchdoctor. In an age when a public persona can too often become a caricature, Ruxton helped the process by, at the height of his prominence, recording a self-deprecatory rap song. Still, this showed his sense of humour and lack of self-aggrandisement. Ruxton fought hard and successfully for veterans' rights long before he was widely known. He was much loved by veterans, conservatives and often older Australians for standing firmly against the zeitgeist on issues such as the republic and the flag. He offended others, particularly with outbursts that rightly drew criticism for providing succour to racism, homophobia and bigotry. However, as is the way with open-minded debate in a free society, the prodding from Ruxton arguably helped Australia become a more tolerant nation. Discussing and debating discontent is much healthier than seeking to legislate it away. Ruxton's death is a reminder that we are losing a generation of men and women who saw this nation through the unspeakable trials of World War II. He saw active service in the Pacific and, like thousands of others, exposed himself to trauma and danger to defend the lifestyle we enjoy today.

Ruxton once reflected on the horrors he experienced, saying that, with other lives in peril, there was no time to dwell on them. But the memories haunted him, and his comrades, in the long years afterwards. Such sacrifice defended, among other things, our free speech. And Ruxton later took full advantage of that freedom. He should be remembered for his sense of duty in battle and in public debate, and for a life spent defending a generation who fought for their country.

Source http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/a-veteran-agent-provocateur/story-e6frg71x-1226230787132

New immigration IT system in New Zealand will speed up visa applications

The New Zealand government is investing $75 million in a new IT system to improve the country’s immigration services.

It wants to make the service more responsive, secure and timely and speed up visa applications, said Immigration minister Jonathan Coleman.

‘We are competing worldwide to recruit skilled and talented people and a new system will help speed up the processing of visa applications and allow applicants to do more online. Providing a fast and modern service is critical in attracting skilled migrants who can help grow the economy,’ he explained.

‘The existing IT system is over 15 years old and is reaching the end of its technological lifespan. The cost of even simple changes is high and cannot be maintained over the long term. It‘s also significantly impairing our ability to provide standards of service and security comparable to other nations,’ Coleman added.

The new Immigration Global Management System (IGMS) will provide an agile system that enables more online processing and automation of simple tasks for clients and employers and the ability for all data to be accessed by INZ offices worldwide.

The system will also provide biometric capability which offers significant improvement in identity management and enhanced security.

People applying for visas will also have their own individual online immigration accounts that will enable them to enter all their details online and track progress on their applications. Implementation of IGMS is scheduled to begin in early 2012.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Key has expressed his disappointment at the British Government’s announcement overnight of an increase in passenger duty for air travellers to New Zealand.

The British Government has announced that the UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) will increase next April from £85 pounds to £92 sterling per passenger coming to New Zealand.

‘The APD places a significant burden on New Zealand businesses, on families who travel, and on our tourism industry. With the tax for New Zealand bound passengers set at four or five times the costs of offsetting the carbon emissions produced, this logic is without basis,’ he said.

‘The British Government’s announcement maintains this cost difference, and ignores the fact that environmental concerns about emissions are being addressed through the European Union’s extension of its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to aviation emissions. That puts a levy on airlines meaning there is no justification for an additional duty on air passengers which discriminates on the basis of distance,’ he added.

Key said the New Zealand Government had been hopeful that the British Government had been persuaded not to proceed with an increased APD that discriminated unfairly against Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Singapore, South Africa and a few others.

Source http://www.expatforum.com/new-zealand/new-immigration-it-system-in-new-zealand-will-speed-up-visa-applications.html

Abbott spurns asylum-seeker talks

THE political stand-off over asylum seekers continues, with both sides playing tough.

Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan is in Brisbane. He has a day of meetings ahead and no media appearances scheduled. Julia Gillard is on leave.

Tony Abbott is in Sydney. The Opposition Leader gave a long interview to Sydney radio station 2GB today, talking about the asylum-seeker impasse. Mr Abbott said the letter sent by the Prime Minister to him was "basically a press release" and that a "meeting without an agenda is basically a media stunt". He said the Coalition wanted to find common ground with Labor, adding "we'd be perfectly happy for people to go to Papua New Guinea".

First off: The impasse dominates front pages again today. The Australian leads off with a report that Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has attacked the humanitarian credentials of the Australian Greens. The Sydney Morning Herald leads off with a report that former immigration minister Philip Ruddock has said a compromise asylum deal could include Labor's preferred option of processing in Malaysia. Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison spoke to ABC 7.30 last night about the impasse.

Front pages: The Australian; The Herald Sun; The West Australian; The Sydney Morning Herald; The Advertiser; The Age; The Daily Telegraph; The Courier Mail; The NT News; The Hobart Mercury; The Canberra Times.

Movements: Independent senator Nick Xenophon is losing his other senior adviser, Rohan Wenn. On Monday, Capital Circle revealed that Evelyn Ek was on her way to work for Finance Minister Penny Wong. Now we can reveal that Wenn will become national campaigns director for activist group GetUp! His first campaign will be a familiar one - poker machine reform. Wenn replaces Skye Laris, who had helped lead GetUp's climate change campaign. Laris, who is a former chief of staff to Environment Minister Tony Burke (report), is returning to the Hill to fill the vacant COS job in Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis's office. In other moves, Kim Carr's science adviser, John Byron, has resigned. He'll finish up in late January.

Diary: Emergency Management Minister Robert McClelland will launch a new bushfire arson website at ACT emergency services headquarters at 10.45am. Mental Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler will make an announcement about hearing aids for people aged 21 to 26 in Adelaide. Defence Science Minister Warren Snowdon will meet members of an Australian-US research team that have developed hypersonic flight capable of hitting 8600km/h in Melbourne today. HMAS Choules, the navy's newest ship, sails through Sydney Heads at around 9.15am today.

Source http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/capital-circle/cracks-open-in-asylum-seeker-stand-off/story-fn59nqgy-1226227243659

What if we can't stop the boats?

How would you characterise Australia's national dialogue on asylum seekers? Is it an open and honest discussion directed towards achieving a principled and decent outcome or is it instead an exercise in denial and point-scoring?

I would think that most of us would want the former but admit that we're instead getting the latter from our political leaders and some elements of the media.

At some point denial becomes unsustainable because the weight of contrary evidence is too great to ignore. Similarly, point-scoring becomes irrelevant, particularly in a situation where it won't change the outcome of the next election. That more or less summarises the present situation.

No matter what Prime Minister Julia Gillard or Chris Bowen say or do, no matter which foot Cory Bernardi decides to place in his mouth, Tony Abbott will still win the next election. And the boats will keep coming.

It would take something spectacular, well beyond Keating's 'true believer's' election win in 1993, for Julia Gillard to defeat Tony Abbott. Even if that miracle did happen the boats would still keep coming.

Yet, a lot of our political rhetoric and policy action centers on stopping boats. As a proposed solution to a serious problem it is an exercise in denial.

The boats will still keep coming because (i) people are fleeing tyrants and their henchmen who are committing crimes with impunity and (ii) some people are fleeing the broken refugee system. It is the last part that is troubling. The official refugee system which could mean that people will stay in refugee camps for over a decade before getting accepted somewhere is clearly unacceptable to most people. The fact that some 'safe' countries don't offer refugees the option of citizenship is also problematic.

There is no simple solution to this problem. There are about 14 million refugees in the world. The safe countries that lie between the asylum seekers and Australia cannot be asked to accept or house all of them. It would be grossly inequitable for developed nations to ask developing countries to shoulder the lion's share of the refugee burden. Yet, this is the situation on the ground. At the same time Australia cannot feasibly accept large numbers of refugees.

The refugee situation is an intractable problem. Nonetheless, an intractable problem cannot be resolved or managed by adopting the language of denial.

So what does that leave us with?

Professor Bob Birrell has suggested that we should withdraw from the Refugee Convention. Regrettably, his aptitude for demographics does not extend to the law. In its substance, Birrell's suggestion is a bit like saying 'crime is still happening so let's abolish the Criminal Code'. It is a suggestion that does not account for the fact that people claiming refuge will still arrive in Australia and that we will still need a principled and lawful way of dealing with them. Getting rid of the established legal framework achieves nothing if the substantive problem remains in play.

Crucially, under Australian law once the Crown has people in its custody under administrative detention it owes them a non-delegable duty of care. As soon as the Australian Government takes any unlawful arrival into administrative detention or custody the duty arises. The extent of that duty is subject to some debate and arguably it could be breached if the Australian Government repatriates asylum seekers to countries where they will be harmed. Moreover, any other country, including the asylum seekers last port of departure, must be willing to accept them.

Criminalising unauthorised arrivals is not a feasible option. Australia is a country committed to the rule of law. The rule of law has at its heart a commitment to substantive justice. There is a big difference between the rule of law and rule by law. This should be obvious, but any solution to the asylum seeker problem should not destroy the moral fabric of Australia or its legal system.

This brings us to the other solution that tends to get floated in conservative circles; towing back the boats. There is one obvious drawback to towing back the boats, should the boats sink and should anybody drown, then the Australian officials who ordered and carried out the towing might face criminal liability under international law. There is also the question of how the asylum seekers and the vessel's crew might react to an attempt to tow boats. There seems little sense in pointlessly endangering Australian officials physically or legally.

If we do tow boats, and if when they begin to sink, Australian officials take the asylum seekers on board their vessel, then they will officially be in the custody of the Australian Government. That is, unless we excise our own navy and coastguard services from the Migration Services Act. I am not sure if there is precedent for this option. This brings us back to square one.

Now if the boats keep coming why don't we just admit that we cannot stop them. We can merely slow their progress. Perhaps that isn't catchy as an election slogan, but at least it's true.

We could turn our attention to the people that the asylum seekers are fleeing from. Some of the officials of those governments have personal assets overseas and even here. If we are meeting the costs of a refugee problem that they created then we have a right to ask for reparations. It is a question that is certainly worth raising with government officials from Sri Lanka, Burma and a few other countries. It might not work with countries like Afghanistan and Iraq where non-state actors are the primary source of concern. But, where the government officials who control and influence the criminals from whom people are fleeing are transnational in their financial and personal interests then it might have some effect. If all else fails, the hip-pocket might be a nerve worth pinching.

Yet, if the boats keep coming we might just have to accept that we can factor in a certain amount of these asylum seekers into our refugee program on an annual basis and that the remainder will have to be detained until we can repatriate them or another country can offer them refugee status.

That is not a happy solution. It would mean that the standard of care in detention centres will have to be raised to meet ethical and legal standards. The reality is that we cannot save everybody. We might just have to accept that and try to be as decent and humane as possible within our resource constraints.

Source http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3739186.html

Recession worsening racism, seminar told

RACISM IN Ireland is on the increase in part because of the recession, according to the Immigrant Council of Ireland, which yesterday marked its 10th anniversary.

Founder of the organisation Sr Stan Kennedy said there was a growing perception that “migrants are a threat to Ireland and the ‘native’ Irish, and are unfairly benefiting from Irish jobs, entitlements and public services”.

At a seminar in City Hall, Dublin, she said the increasing levels of racism emerging in recent times “can be attributed in part to such misconceptions”.

Racist abuse varied from spitting, pushing and beating people up to shouting and verbal abuse.

She said there was a lack of clarity on immigration policy, while the immigration system remained “chaotic, bureaucratic, cumbersome and lacking in transparency”.

The system was being reviewed by the Government, but there remained “a high level of discretion for the Minister for Justice”.

Former president Mary Robinson said negative attitudes to immigration were “dangerous and must not be tolerated in a civilised society”. She said this attitude “is often not based on a real threat to jobs or livelihoods, rather that when things are bad there is a temptation to look around for someone to blame”. While the boom was over, many migrants were now part of Irish society. “Immigrants are making a terrific contribution to Ireland’s economy and our society. That contribution must be celebrated and valued.”

Chief executive of the council Denise Charlton said Ireland had changed from a white, predominantly Catholic society to “something very different now”, and there were about 35,000 newly naturalised Irish citizens in the country and about 500,000 immigrants in total.

In some respects it was “increasingly a case of ‘them and us’ ”, and unless people changed their attitude and saw Ireland as a multicultural society, racism would remain a long-term problem.

Ms Charlton said Ireland was the only EU country without a family settlement system. The system as it stood was costly and inefficient and there was “no doubt some nationalities are treated very differently”.

She said five applicants meeting the exact same criteria could be treated very differently. It depended on the individual “who happens to be processing” the application.

Met Éireann weather forecaster Klara Finkele said it was the Irish community in Australia, “their sense of humour, way of living and what was important to them” that brought her to Ireland. Originally from Germany, she also lived in Australia and Belgium.

She said she felt at home within two weeks of arriving in Ireland. In Australia “everyone was from somewhere else”. When she arrived in 1998, Ireland was a “very monocultural place”, where people turned around if they heard her speaking German.

She believes the Irish experience of emigration makes them more tolerant. Irish people “let differences be. They are accepting of difference, although within a certain framework,” she said. “I speak English well and I’m white. I don’t know how it would be if I were black and spoke French.”

Entrepreneur Asheesh Dewan, who set up the Jaipur chain of six Indian restaurants, came to Ireland in 1996 from Dharamsala.

He believes immigration has come full circle in Ireland. When he arrived, “you went to Harcourt Street, they gave you a green book and called you an ‘alien’”. Four years later it had all changed. “The system and country were overwhelmed by migration services . . .

“Now there are no jobs and no money,” he said, while most of the migrants here now have settled. “People in Ireland are not inherently racist,” he added. If there are remarks, they speak “in anger” and from ignorance, not racism.

Source http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1219/1224309258422.html

Australian Immigration Reviews Lead to Improve Settlement Services

Mr Bowen and Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Kate Lundy released the Review of Humanitarian Settlement Services (HSS) Performance Measures and Contract Management on December 13, 2011.

The review, which was appointed to David Richmond AO by the Minister in May 2011, focused on the adequacy of performance measures and contract management processes of HSS program under the previous Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy (IHSS) program.

In April this year, the Gillard Government replaced the IHSS program with HSS program and introduced a comprehensive set of changes to strengthen and improve the settlement framework.

"The review by Mr Richmond found that although the HSS is generally well managed, improvements can be made in certain areas such as contract performance management, reporting and quality control," Mr Bowen said.

"The government has accepted the recommendations of the review and I have asked my department to establish an implementation taskforce to provide regular progress reports."

"Work to improve and review settlement services is ongoing and we have already inspected the standard of more than 400 properties, and as a result, relocated four families to more appropriate accommodation."

The HSS program provides initial settlement support, which is tailored to individual needs, including the specific needs of young people. HSS also endeavours to strengthen the ability of humanitarian clients to participate in the economic and social life of Australia and to provide newcomers to Australia with the skills and knowledge to independently access services.

The Review of Humanitarian Settlement Services found that:

* it's necessary to have more proactive contract management and better reporting;

* strategies were required to improve performance measures supporting the program;

* better safeguards were needed on accommodation standards, particularly in stressed urban Australian housing markets;

* the quality assurance framework needed revising, and reporting and dialogue between the department and service delivery networks needed strengthening and

* service providers could improve their relationships with clients "on the ground".

According to Senator Lundy, under the HSS program, Australian government had strengthened support services of humanitarian settlement across Australia and around major regional centres.

"The review supported the improvements to our settlement services introduced by the government earlier this year, but highlighted the ongoing management challenges associated with successful settlement," Senator Lundy said.

"Australia's settlement services are now more comprehensive and robust than they have been in the past, but we remain focused on addressing emerging issues to ensure better settlement outcomes for new arrivals and the Australian community."

"As a government we are committed to delivering strong settlement support to help some of the community's most vulnerable people start a new life in Australia and become participating members of the community."

"I would like to thank Mr Richmond and others who have provided valuable input into the review, as well as the professional and committed service providers who deliver settlement services to newly arrived refugees."

If you are interested in Australian visas , contact Migration Services Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try its visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to Australia.

Source http://www.migrationexpert.com/australia/visa/australian_immigration_news/2011/dec/0/563/australian_immigration_reviews_lead_to_improve_settlement_services

NSW and Victoria in revolt over Australian visa grants for refugees

The recent announcement that thousands of asylum-seekers will be granted Australian bridging visas and moved out of detention centres has sparked outrage amongst state governments, with both New South Wales and Victoria attacking the Immigration Minister for the move.

The policy has only seen 27 Australian visa grants made to asylum-seekers so far. However, Immigration Minister Chis Bowen announced in October that he would issue a minimum of 100 bridging visas a month to refugees whose claims had not been finalised.

The actual figure is expected to be higher though, as it will depend on the rate of new asylum-seeker arrivals, which have escalated since the major parties failed to strike a deal on the offshore processing.

NSW Police Minister Mike Gallacher was one of the most outspoken critics of the announcement, saying that it had been made without any consultation with the states, even though it is the states who will be expected to provide many of the migration services the asylum-seekers will need.

When speaking to The Weekend Australia about the lack of communication from the Australian Immigration department, Mr Gallacher said: "No one picked up the phone; no one wrote to me.

"Some of these people, just simply by being released here, could find themselves either being the victims of crime, or indeed coming to police attention themselves. There's simply been no discussion between the state government and the federal government in terms of our preparedness to handle these matters."

Also speaking on the situation was the Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship, Nicholas Kotsiras. He expressed his concerns that settling asylum-seekers in the community without additional funding for recruitment services like mental health, education, and housing "may greatly disadvantage asylum-seekers by dumping them into communities without adequate support and without any concern for their welfare".

"Without providing additional support, the federal government will be working against the better interests of asylum-seekers themselves, the communities they will be placed in and social cohesion in Victoria."

Source http://www.visabureau.com/australia/news/12-12-2011/nsw-and-victoria-in-revolt-over-australian-visa-grants-for-refugees.aspx

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Battle to stem the tide

A STRANGE fate has befallen the Labor Party on boat arrivals - government policy is now a shambles, with arrivals at a record high, yet the ALP national conference has voted for a new and firm offshore processing policy that means better border security down the track.

The refugee debate last weekend saw a defeat of the Labor Left and of Labor for Refugees in their bid to halt the Immigration Minister Chris Bowen from inserting into the ALP platform unequivocal support for offshore processing in the context of regional solutions to boat arrivals.

Source http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/battle-to-stem-the-tide/story-e6frgd0x-1226218574558

Sea Shepherd helicopter pilot granted Australian visa

It has been reported by the Australian Greens Leader, Bob Brown, that Chris Aultman has now been granted an Australian visa after initially being denied entry to join Sea Shepherd in their efforts to protest the Japanese whaling fleet.

Chris Aultman is a helicopter pilot and former US Marine, and was initially denied entry to Australia to aid Sea Shepherd in their efforts to locate and protest against a Japanese whaling fleet.

However, after pressure by Sea Shepherd and other groups, Australia Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has responded to the case and Aultman has now been granted an Australian visa. This was confirmed by Senator Bob Brown, the leader of Australia's Green Party, who made the following comments:

"I thank Immigration Minister Chris Bowen for his swift response to my request as to why two Sea Shepherd crew members were denied visas to enter Australia. Sea Shepherd's Chris Aultman and Tim Pierce, helicopter pilot and mechanic respectively, had both successfully applied before for visas to Australia. Mr Pierce is expected to be able to also join his colleague in Australia."

"The Japanese Government is sending a patrol boat from its Fisheries Agency to 'strengthen the protection' of whaling ships as they illegally hunt whales in Australia's territorial waters. Japan has also taken tens of millions of dollars out of tsunami relief funds to help finance the whale killing fleet heading to Antarctica.

"I have serious concerns that the presence of the patrol boat may escalate tensions when Sea Shepherd tries to protect the whales the Japanese ships are slaughtering.

"The Australian Government must have a plan in place to ensure safety as the Sea Shepherd fleet prepares to leave Australian ports to defend hundreds of whales from Japanese whaling ships," Senator Brown said. 

Source  http://www.visabureau.com/australia/news/08-12-2011/sea-shepherd-helicopter-pilot-granted-australian-visa.aspx

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Elders signs up for HP private cloud

Elders Australia is putting its faith in a private cloud platform from HP as it embarks on a migration to a SAP and overhauls its enterprise applications, document management and collaboration environment.

The migration services to SAP from a 20 year old IBM iSystem (AS/400) environment will be undertaken in a series of stages over the next four years, with the first deployment in March 2012 comprising financials, HR and Indirect Procurement.

Shaun Hughes, CIO of Elders Australia, said the 172-year-old rural services and automotive company has signed a seven-year infrastructure and applications services agreement with HP.

Under the agreement, Elders will use cloud technology to cost effectively deploy its enterprise technology refresh program – Project Connect.

“We have been going through a fairly significant business transformation over recent years,” said Hughes.

“This has been around three core pillars: customer centric sales, supply chain and capital management. Underpinning all of this is business process and reviewing our technology footprint.”

Both the new SAP deployment and Elders’ legacy applications will run on infrastructure hosted by HP in their cloud with automated processes managing the infrastructure and environment.

“As we migrate our legacy iSystem and bespoke Wintel applications to SAP, our philosophy is about keeping a central record, getting that data back into central data warehouse,” said Hughes.

“We will ensure all docs are scanned and stored digitally so they can be shared around across the whole of the company in 400 locations.”

In the initial stages, SAP’s core document management functionality is seen as sufficient, although this will be reviewed as the project evolves.

Elders also has some local solutions for document management and storage, it uses the locally developed DvTDM drawing and document management software for its insurance division and invoice processing.

“These will still continue to have a role to play considering the legacy footprint and the various joint venture businesses we are involved in,” said Hughes.

“We are not going to rip out old technology that still has a place. Business change is a significant issue and we are going to minimise that where we can.

While the Elders technology refresh will aim to automate business processes where possible, in some cases the nature of longstanding practices will limit their potential.

For example, at a stock saleyard in remote Australia, the industry practice is to manage record sales in triplicate via a written document.

“In some case we can automate the process but in other cases we still use handwritten documents which require data entry at local branch level, As we go through this design phase we are looking at how we can use a range of technologies related to job role, to simplify but work within constraints of how we operate.

“The triplicate form may still make sense but we may look at options such as data capture via a smartpen linked to mobile device to speed up the process flow and have manual validation.”

“Outsourcing to HP is a core part of our transformation program,” said Hughes.

“HP’s cloud will provide us with a robust infrastructure and service delivery model that enables us to scale up for each of our program releases, and the applications methodologies and tools HP brings to the table enable us to de-risk the legacy development components of our build.”

HP will use products from its HP Software suite to synchronise Elders’ technology infrastructure with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Version 3 service management framework. To prepare for a cloud environment, HP will refresh Elders’ hardware with BladeSystem servers, HP Storage and ESL E-series Tape Libraries.

In addition, HP will deliver Workplace Services for all of the company’s computing devices such as desktop and notebook PCs, handheld devices and printers.

HP will deliver these infrastructure and applications services from HP global delivery centres in Australia and the Philippines

Source http://idm.net.au/article/008775-elders-signs-hp-private-cloud

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Acting ombudsman calls in firm to ensure impartiality

Acting Commonwealth Ombudsman Alison Larkins has asked professional services firm Ernst & Young to review the office's procedures to ensure any perceived lack of impartiality by her senior staff can be countered.

As part of her role as acting Ombudsman Ms Larkins is responsible for maintaining a watchdog role over Australia's immigration responsibilities.

Before taking the role of deputy Ombudsman in March, Ms Larkins was first assistant secretary in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Ms Larkins joined DIAC in 2006, working on the extensive reforms to the department after the crises sparked by the cases of deportee Vivian Alvarez and detainee Cornelia Rau.

Former Ombudsman Allan Asher resigned from the office in October after coming under sustained pressure from parliamentarians over revelations he scripted questions for Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to ask him in a committee.

Mr Asher was highly critical of the Government's immigration detention policies.

But he said yesterday any perception of conflict ''remains to be seen''.

''I believe she got the position after a public recruitment process and she's obviously got a sound public service background - personally I wouldn't make any criticism of Alison.''

Ms Larkins' office said she had put procedures in place to manage any perceived conflict of interest by senior staff in the office arising from their previous relationships with Commonwealth agencies.

''These procedures include delegating or escalating decision-making where necessary and possible,'' a spokeswoman said.

It was not uncommon for senior public sector staff to move between agencies.

The Government advertised for a new Ombudsman on the weekend, with a salary package of $380,000.

Source http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/acting-ombudsman-calls-in-firm-to-ensure-impartiality/2382319.aspx

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