Join us at Perth!
WA Migration Conference 2026 Program
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Friday, 14 August 2026
DoubleTree by Hilton Waterfront, Perth
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM
Registrations
9:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Session 1: Welcome and MIA Advocacy Update (Employer‑Sponsored & Skilled Migration)
Presenters:
Open the day with the Migration Institute of Australia's advocacy work and a wide-angle view of the issues shaping the profession. Sean Choong, Peter van Vliet and Victoria O'Neil cover where the MIA's representations on employer-sponsored and skilled migration have landed, the priorities for the year ahead at both national and Western Australian level, and the industry developments practitioners should be watching across policy and regulation. Mary Anne Kenny will also provide an overview of Murdoch University's new Graduate Diploma in Australian Migration Law and Practice.
9:45 AM – 10:30 AM
Session 2 · Working with the Department: A Panel on Processing, Priorities and Practice
This panel unpacks the operational and policy developments, with a representative from the Department of Home Affairs joining the discussion. Panellists will work through current processing priorities, program settings and recent operational changes, and draws out what they mean in practice for advising clients across Western Australia.
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Morning Tea Break
11:00 AM – 11:45 AM
Session 3 - PIC 4020 in Practice: The Criteria, the Department's Approach, and Practical Strategies
Presenter:
Public interest criterion 4020 is among the most unforgiving grounds of refusal in the system, and a finding can bar a client for years. This session reviews the criteria from the ground up: what constitutes a bogus document or information that is false or misleading in a material particular, the identity limb, and the exclusion periods that follow. It examines how the Department interprets and applies PIC 4020 in practice, where the threshold questions really sit, and the circumstances in which the waiver provisions are available. Built around practical guidance, the session covers spotting risk in a file before lodgement, responding effectively to RFIs, and the tips and traps that make the difference between a refusal and a saved application.
11:45 AM – 12:30 PM
Session 4 · WA State Government Update
Presenter(s): Kristi Carlile, Migration Services WA Representatives from the WA Government provide an update on state-led initiatives across the skilled, employer-sponsored and regional space, including State Nominated Migration Program settings, occupation priorities, and the DAMA pathways for Western Australian
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
Lunch Break
1:30 PM – 2:15 PM
Session 5 · Employer-Sponsored Nominations: Sponsor Entity Structures, International Trade Obligations and the AMSR Presenters: Panellists to be confirmed This panel drills into three technical issues that frequently decide employer-sponsored nominations. It works through sponsor entity structures, including how trusts, trading names, corporate groups and associated entities affect who can lawfully sponsor and nominate; the international trade obligations that can exempt a nominated position from labour market testing, and how to identify and rely on them; and the annual market salary rate, including how it is calculated, evidenced and tested by the Department. Each topic is led by a panellist, followed by a moderated question and answer session.
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM
Session 6 · Fit to Instruct: Mental Health, Capacity and the Vulnerable Client
Drawing on Christine Morgan's mental health expertise alongside frontline legal practice, this session works through capacity in all senses. It covers vulnerability, trauma and mental illness and the trauma-informed practice the duty of competence requires; impaired or fluctuating capacity and how to approach it; acting on instructions given under a power of attorney or by a guardian or other substitute decision-maker; and what happens to a matter when a client dies. It also marks the boundary between adviser and clinician, and the ethical path of supporting a vulnerable client through to appropriate referral rather than stepping outside your role.
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Afternoon Tea Break
3:30 PM – 4:15 PM
Session 7 · On Your Watch: Balancing Your Supervision Requirements with the Growth in Administrative Staff, Offshore Assistance and AI Chatbots
For many RMAs and lawyers, migration practice now relies on layered teams and tools, and professional responsibility follows all of them. Run as a panel discussion, this ethics session works through supervising at every level: other RMAs and lawyers within the practice, administrative and paralegal staff, offshore administrative teams, and the AI chatbots and automated tools now doing client facing work. It covers the duty to supervise, the risks unique to administrative, offshore and AI support, and the principle that work produced under your name remains yours to answer for. Drawing on recent disciplinary action where supervision failures sat alongside the headline breaches, this panel focuses on protecting both your clients and your registration.
4:15 PM – 5:00 PM
Session 8 · Mind the Gap: Your Annual Refresher on Bridging Visas
Bridging visas are the connective tissue of all onshore migration processes and getting them wrong can have drastic consequences for your client. This session works through the bridging visa classes and their work and travel conditions. A practical close to the day, this session will highlight the recurring traps and the steps to keep a client lawfully onshore throughout the visa process.
5:00 pm
Closing Remarks Sean Choong, MIA National President
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Networking canapes and beverages
*This program is subject to change.
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