People our Business
The changing face of our Immigration Department
Immigration in Australia has come a long way since the early settlers landed here and to all the migrants whom have made this beautiful nation their home over the past century.
Every Government played an integral role to ensure that Australia became a viable multicultural nation, investing time and effort to ensure a positive future for Australia’s prosperity and long term sustainability.
In 2005 the Department of Immigration initiated an agency-wide programme to reform its culture, performance, systems and business over its handling of Vivian Alvarez Solon’s and Cornelia Rau’s cases.
This prompted the department to improve client service, compliance, case management, training and improve health services for detainees and Identity verification, their Slogan became “People our Business”.
Immigate’s Director, Diana Faraj worked at the Department of Immigration for years and was trained to execute this slogan seriously and to ensure that clients were treated well and provide them with a fair go attitude, there was a customer service counter where she spent quality time answering clients questions and concerns, a face to face approach in which Migration agents and clients were able to speak to case officers or managers and have a conversation about a particular case or issue.
In 2013 this changed dramatically when the Government decided to amalgamate the Department of Immigration with the Australian Customs and Border Protection services. This decision distanced the Government from its clients and no longer was it possible for migrants to contact case officers or even visit the Department’s office for any customer queries and assistance. The slogan was scrapped and the culture of helping people and providing a face to face customer care centre, significantly came to an end, which meant no more service centre’s and no more communication with its clients.
This transformation has made it more difficult and frustrating for many of its clients and the Government’s recent tougher stance on Immigration is changing the face of Australia on many levels, which begs the question, Where to Next?