GREAT CURRENT AUSTRALIA PTY LTD (Migration)

This matter concerned an appeal by Great Current Australia Pty Ltd against a decision to refuse its nomination for a Temporary Residence Transition visa stream. The dispute centred on whether the applicant had met its training commitments and obligations during the period of its most recent approval as a Standard Business Sponsor. The case was heard by Stavros Georgiadis, a member of the Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine whether Great Current Australia Pty Ltd had satisfied the requirements of regulation 5.19(3)(f) of the Migration Regulations 1994. This regulation mandates that a nominator must have fulfilled any commitments made regarding training requirements and complied with applicable training obligations during the period of their most recent sponsorship approval. The Tribunal was required to assess the evidence presented regarding the company's payroll expenditure and actual training payments against the relevant sponsorship periods.

The Tribunal found that Great Current Australia Pty Ltd had not demonstrated compliance with its training obligations. While the company provided evidence of payroll figures and several payments made to TAFE NSW and for "Visa Benchmark A contributions," the Tribunal determined that these payments did not adequately cover the training benchmark requirements for each of the three relevant 12-month periods of its Standard Business Sponsorship. The company's submission that training expenditure paid at any time during the sponsorship was sufficient was rejected; the Tribunal held that the benchmark must be met for each year of sponsorship.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review to refuse the nomination. It concluded that Great Current Australia Pty Ltd had not met the requirements of regulation 5.19(3), and as such, the nomination could not be approved.