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Voice of Real Australia is a regular newsletter from ACM, which has journalists in every state and territory. Sign up here to get it by email, or here to forward it to a friend. Today’s is written by ACM editorial trainee Tim Piccione.
Journalists often face their own lack of knowledge in a public way.

It’s a job that can mean picking up a story about a complicated subject at 9am and by deadline, not only knowing it inside out, but finding a way to accurately explain it to others.
It recently took me the better part of a month to understand and write about the Regional Skilled Migrant visa (subclass 491) – a pathway for migrants into permanent residency through work.
I won’t bore you with the details or the controversial points system used for nominations here, but this lengthy feature should (hopefully) explain it.
Despite my first few conversations about the topic leading to serious feelings of incompetence, I was soon comforted by a sense of shared confusion by all involved.
From skilled migrants to migration lawyers and from business bodies to politicians, the consensus was clear – this key visa pathway was universally considered convoluted and frustrating.
And that was a big part of the problem, especially as a seemingly unnecessary additional barrier to the ever growing skills shortage facing regional NSW.
But what was professionally difficult for me, it turns out, was life-altering for others.
I faced another knowledge gap entering the project, which on reflection, was more akin to privileged ignorance.
Why was 28-year-old Pakistani migrant Ali Hamza stacking shelves at Woolworths and why was 30-year-old Adbul Aziz from India doing shifts at a petrol station to support himself?
Because the two masters-qualified mechanical engineers were yet to find full time work in their fields, despite their combined hundreds of job applications over the past year.
That’s likely because the pair don’t have “local experience” or because employers are, like many, reportedly confused around the parameters and longevity of working and graduate migrant visas.
Mr Hamza summarised it best when he said: “I have to do something.”

“That’s why you see a lot of guys doing Uber here, doing taxis here.
“We’re not getting equal opportunity – we’re not here to drive Ubers.”
The pair are still looking for regional work and each face a ticking clock to do so or risk being sent home.
It turns out their experience is very common.

Something I knew very little, if anything, about before I wandered into Wagga’s Flok Cafe in NSW’s Riverina on a Friday afternoon to interview Ali Hamza.

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