Latest news with #DepartmentofImmigration
1News
29-05-2025
- General
- 1News
Gold Coast charity offers down on their luck Kiwis a ticket home
Kiwis living on the Gold Coast who have fallen on hard times are being offered one-way tickets back to New Zealand. The Nerang Neighbourhood Centre is offering the repatriation flights as New Zealanders are ineligible for governmental support for general homelessness. Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose told Morning Report for some people, a flight back to New Zealand was the only option. "Our job is to put all the options on the table and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't put going back to New Zealand on the table. "Often it's the only option for that person or family to be able to get financial support." Rose explained the offer was "entirely voluntary", and not everyone took it. For some it took a few conversations before people came to the conclusion heading back to New Zealand was the best option. "I always frame the conversation around, 'you haven't failed, in some ways the system has failed you.'" The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government, and Rose said the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre had collaborated with other organisations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to help people get back to New Zealand. "It's emergency relief funding and it's for people in crisis when there's no other option." Rose explained the decision was a tough one, as Australia had become peoples' home, regardless of how long they had been living there. "We've helped dozens and dozens over the years, and there are two organisations affiliated to the Department of Immigration that also do this called Homeward and International Organisation for Migration. "It's an issue, and I think it's going to become more of an issue given that rents here are astronomical and affordable housing is almost out of reach of working people. We have working people living in their cars here." In 2023, a pathway to Australian citizenship was created, but Rose explained this wasn't an immediate or short-term fix as the process was costly and time consuming.
Otago Daily Times
28-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Aussie charity offers Kiwis one-way ticket home
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Kiwis living on the Gold Coast who have fallen on hard times are being offered one-way tickets back to New Zealand. The Nerang Neighbourhood Centre is offering the repatriation flights as New Zealanders are ineligible for governmental support for general homelessness. Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose told RNZ's Morning Report programme today that, for some people, a flight back to New Zealand was the only option. "Our job is to put all the options on the table and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't put going back to New Zealand on the table. "Often it's the only option for that person or family to be able to get financial support." Rose explained the offer was "entirely voluntary", and not everyone took it. For some it took a few conversations before people came to the conclusion heading back to New Zealand was the best option. "I always frame the conversation around, 'you haven't failed, in some ways the system has failed you.'" The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government, and Rose said the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre had collaborated with other organisations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to help people get back to New Zealand. "It's emergency relief funding and it's for people in crisis when there's no other option." Rose explained the decision was a tough one, as Australia had become peoples' home, regardless of how long they had been living there. "We've helped dozens and dozens over the years, and there are two organisations affiliated to the Department of Immigration that also do this called Homeward and International Organisation for Migration. "It's an issue, and I think it's going to become more of an issue given that rents here are astronomical and affordable housing is almost out of reach of working people. We have working people living in their cars here." In 2023, a pathway to Australian citizenship was created, but Rose explained this wasn't an immediate or short-term fix as the process was costly and time-consuming.
Otago Daily Times
28-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Aussie charity offers down on their luck New Zealanders a ticket home
Kiwis living on the Gold Coast who have fallen on hard times are being offered one-way tickets back to New Zealand. The Nerang Neighbourhood Centre is offering the repatriation flights as New Zealanders are ineligible for governmental support for general homelessness. Nerang Neighbourhood Centre general manager Vicky Rose told Morning Report for some people, a flight back to New Zealand was the only option. "Our job is to put all the options on the table and we wouldn't be doing our job properly if we didn't put going back to New Zealand on the table. "Often it's the only option for that person or family to be able to get financial support." Rose explained the offer was "entirely voluntary", and not everyone took it. For some it took a few conversations before people came to the conclusion heading back to New Zealand was the best option. "I always frame the conversation around, 'you haven't failed, in some ways the system has failed you.'" The funding for the flights comes from the Queensland state government, and Rose said the Nerang Neighbourhood Centre had collaborated with other organisations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane to help people get back to New Zealand. "It's emergency relief funding and it's for people in crisis when there's no other option." Rose explained the decision was a tough one, as Australia had become peoples' home, regardless of how long they had been living there. "We've helped dozens and dozens over the years, and there are two organisations affiliated to the Department of Immigration that also do this called Homeward and International Organisation for Migration. "It's an issue, and I think it's going to become more of an issue given that rents here are astronomical and affordable housing is almost out of reach of working people. We have working people living in their cars here." In 2023, a pathway to Australian citizenship was created, but Rose explained this wasn't an immediate or short-term fix as the process was costly and time consuming.
The Star
01-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Australia's housing crisis needs a deeper fix
PERHAPS, no other movie depicts the Australian dream of owning a home more than the 1997 classic comedy The Castle, in which the Kerrigan family takes on developers to save their house. Fast-forward 28 years and nobody is laughing. For the first time, Millennial and Gen Z voters will outnumber those aged over 60 at polling stations on Saturday. Housing is a – if not the – top concern in this federal election. Most are resigned to never being able to get into one of the world's most unaffordable markets. Policies put forward by the two major parties are unlikely to make things better. If re-elected, the ruling Labor Party promises to allow all first-time buyers to purchase a home with as little as a 5% deposit. It is committed to building 1.2 million homes by 2029 but, at the current rate, could fall short by as many as 400,000 dwellings. The opposition Liberal-National coalition wants to allow first-time buyers to deduct some mortgage interest payments from their taxes and tap pensions for initial deposits. Economists believe that both policies will drive prices higher because they are skewed toward demand. That is why more ambitious reforms need to be part of the discussion to add to supply and improve affordability. Revamping a tax system largely seen as favouring speculators and investing in regional centres to ease the strain on the major cities should be among policies on the table. This is now even more crucial. Labor shortages, increasing costs, complex approval processes, and land availability around transport hubs and essential services mean Australia can't build homes fast enough to satisfy demand amid record numbers of migrants. Rents are also soaring. To demonstrate a genuine commitment to reform, making longer-term rentals viable now that people are being priced out of ownership should be considered as part of any housing policy. Renting has been seen as a transitional stop to owning. Australia could explore arrangements similar to what is available in Scandinavian countries, which have also experienced rapid population growth and increased demand for homes, Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration, told the Bloomberg Australia Podcast. Long-term rental is a more natural approach for most of Europe. 'In Australia, owning your home is the big deal,' Rizvi said. Australia is not alone in dealing with a housing crisis. But owning a house (or more) is so embedded in the national psyche that it's even been called pathological. It has stood as a symbol of stability for a young, migrant country. My first memory of Australia as my family drove out of Adelaide airport in 1982 is of stand-alone houses. I was mesmerised. I had grown up in a Soviet-era apartment block in Bucharest; as an adult I lived in high-rise apartments in Hong Kong before finally returning to Sydney and purchasing that quarter-acre block. One of the most contentious debates is about what is known as negative gearing, a popular way for property investors who borrow to reduce their taxable income. While some argue that it has added stock to the rental market, it's also seen as driving up prices by fuelling demand for investment properties, pricing out first-time buyers. The Melbourne-based think tank Grattan Institute said this kind of financial leverage goes 'beyond the broadly accepted principle of offsetting investment losses against investment gains'. More than 65% of household wealth – which stood at A$17 trillion in the December quarter – is tied to property due to the rising value of land and homes, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. And politicians have skin in the game, including the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. More than half of members of parliament are property investors. It's no surprise that nobody wants to see values decline. Negative gearing is such a hot topic that any suggestions it should be tweaked generate frenzied debate. It has been a poisoned chalice, costing elections. The question is, are Australians ready to accept that to tackle affordability from every possible angle, a generous perk in its current form has had its day? As more people will likely live in apartments, minimum quality standards need to be enforced. Examples of poorly built homes abound. Better, smarter and more functional units should be built for those who may never be able to afford stand-alone homes, families and downsizers. Australian house prices have been defying gravity as long as I can remember, despite predictions of a crash. Sydney's median house price is at a record A$1.19mil (US$760,000), and the average home costs almost 14 times the annual disposable income. This has made it the world's second-most expensive city to buy property after Hong Kong. — Bloomberg Andreea Papuc is a Bloomberg columnist. The views expressed here are the writer's own.
Arab News
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Bangladesh restores ‘except Israel' clause in passports after public pressure
DHAKA: Bangladesh is reinstating the 'except Israel' clause in its passports, the Department of Immigration said on Tuesday, after public pressure to reverse its removal by the previous government. Bangladeshi passports carried the sentence 'This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel' until 2021, when authorities rolled out a new travel document and the phrase was removed without any public notice. While authorities justified it by saying it was meant to 'maintain international standard,' many people in the country — which has no diplomatic relations with Israel — questioned the move. The new interim government, which took charge of Bangladesh in August after the ouster of its long-standing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has decided to undo her cabinet's decision. 'We've received the government's directive to reinstate the 'except Israel' clause in Bangladeshi passports. We are currently working to implement it,' Brig. Gen. Mohammed Nurus Salam, passports director at the Department of Immigration, told Arab News. 'For many years, our passports carried the 'except Israel' clause. But the previous government suddenly removed it. We were used to seeing 'except Israel' written in our passports. I don't know why they took it out. If you talk to people across the country, you'll see they want that line back in their passports. There was no need to remove it.' Pressure to reinstate the clause has been mounting since the beginning of Israel's ongoing deadly onslaught on Gaza, which began in October 2023. Over 51,000 people have been killed, 116,000 wounded, and 2 million others face starvation after Israeli forces destroyed most of the region's infrastructure and buildings while blocking humanitarian aid from entering. A clear ban on travel to Israel in Bangladeshi passports was one of the key demands raised during a series of Gaza solidarity protests, which have been held regularly in Dhaka since last month after Israeli forces unilaterally broke a ceasefire agreement and resumed bombing hospitals, schools and tents sheltering displaced people. The biggest such protest took place in Dhaka on Saturday, with about 1 million people taking to the streets to call on the international community to 'take effective and collective action to end the genocide,' and especially on Muslim countries to immediately sever all economic, military, and diplomatic relations with Israel and to 'impose commercial blockades and sanctions on the Zionist state' and begin active diplomatic efforts to isolate it on the international stage. 'People will definitely welcome this new decision. It reflects the feelings of the people of this country,' Salam said, but he was not able to specify when the new passports will be available. 'There are some technical challenges involved with this change. Currently, we import e-passports from Germany under a government-to-government agreement … It may take another week to finalize the necessary procedures. In the meantime, we are exploring whether there's any option to modify the existing stock of printed booklets.'
