OPERATIONAL REPORTS

• Attended more than 50 key stakeholder events, including meetings, conferences and presentations across Australia (includes attendance by staff members from other sections).
• Provided secretariat services to four advisory board meetings.
• Launched an ethnic media strategy resulting in media exposure in ethnic community newspapers within Australia.
• Extended support for people of non–English speaking backgrounds by providing information products in more languages.

The Office of the MARA achieved substantial progress in the implementation of its communications strategy through a range of projects that had a strong focus on improving consumer awareness. Corporate branding and colours were established through the development of a style guide that included templates for information materials. The migration agents graphic was updated to reflect the new colour schemes. The 2009–10 annual report was made available on the Office of the MARA’s website in HTML format to improve access to the report.

A key product that was recommended and developed by the communications strategy was the Consumer Guide. The guide provides useful information on selecting a registered migration agent and the range of factors that consumers should consider when using an agent. Launched in August 2010, the Consumer Guide was well received by the community and as a result over 1700 printed copies were distributed to both consumer and agent groups. An additional 2475 copies of the electronic format were downloaded from the Office of the MARA’s website and it was consistently one of the top 10 documents downloaded.

To support clients of non–English speaking backgrounds, a translated booklet was developed and released in March 2011. Based on the Consumer Guide, it was translated into 17 key community languages and was made available in both printed and electronic formats. The available languages cover the majority of consumers who would be likely to use the services of a migration agent and emerging vulnerable consumers. A targeted distribution campaign included various community and multicultural services across Australia. In addition, the booklet has been used by detention centres and Queensland police. The booklet was positively received: more than 5500 printed copies were sent to stakeholders and more than 1850 downloads of the online versions were recorded.

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A direct dialogue with all registered migration agents was continued through the ongoing circulation of the CEO newsletter. In 2010–11, five newsletters were distributed to all agents. They included key information enhancements within the Office of the MARA’s operations, advisory board outcome statements and a newly introduced ‘Code Alert’ article. The newsletter was also used as an effective channel to communicate new enhancements such as the revised agent certificates and cards. As at 30 June 2011, all editions of the CEO newsletter published within the program year were collectively downloaded 6632 times.

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As part of a new ethnic media strategy, an editorial piece and advertising were placed in various targeted ethnic newspapers across Australia. The main focus of this project was to promote the translated booklet to people of non–English speaking backgrounds. This resulted in advertising exposure across 11 community groups, and the targeted newspapers published the editorial piece on 85.7 per cent of the available opportunities. The placement of the editorial piece in the publications represented over $17 500 in free promotion.

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An extensive program of liaison was undertaken by key representatives of the Office of the MARA. This included the delivery of over 50 presentations to stakeholder groups, such as migrant resource centres, universities, departmental staff and electorate officers. The productive and collaborative relationship with the Migration Institute of Australia was strengthened, particularly in relation to matters concerning the entry-level qualification, provision of pro bono services and continuing professional development. A highlight of this positive relationship was the delivery of presentations by both the CEO and chair of the advisory board at the Migration Institute of Australia’s national conference in October 2010. The CEO also delivered a presentation to attendees of the Law Council of Australia’s immigration law conference in March 2011.

The Office of the MARA explored opportunities for cooperation through attendance at the Five Country Conference,⁶ where an informal working group was established. The CEO attended the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants National Conference in Toronto, where she presented a paper on the operation of the Office of the MARA and participated in a panel discussion about the challenges faced by countries with similar regulatory schemes.

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Improvements were made to the resources and appearance of the Office of the MARA’s website. In response to the recommendations of the usability testing report, the home page was redesigned to improve accessibility and usability. This included colour-coding the main section buttons of the website. A quick links feature was added that included a drop-down list of the most popular pages accessed by users. A dedicated reform agenda section was established to keep stakeholders updated on the implementation of recommendations from the 2007–08 Review of Statutory Self-Regulation of the Migration Advice Profession.

From 1 February 2011, the ability to search for agents who are also Australian legal practitioners was introduced. This search functionality remains popular, with pages for the agents search, agent details and search results among the top pages visited—together representing well over 2 million page views. Agents also increased their use of the online functionality to update their details.

As at 30 June 2011, 75.5 per cent of agents who updated their details used the online function—compared to 60 per cent in the previous year. This figure represents the percentage of edits actually done online compared to the total number of edits that agents could do through the website.

Approximately 82 per cent of agents applying for repeat registration used the partially online repeat registration application process.

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The Office of the MARA continued to implement more of the recommendations from the 2007–08 Review of Statutory Self-Regulation of the Migration Advice Profession. The progression of the reform agenda has been supported through consultation between the Office of the MARA, its advisory board and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. As at 30 June 2011, of the 57 recommendations for reform:

Work continued toward developing and implementing interim measures for those recommendations that are dependent on legislative change.

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