DIAC have raised their student visa risk assessment levels for students from India from three to four commencing 1st September. Four is the highest level, meaning Indian students will have to provide very rigorous documentary evidence to get a visa. Leaving aside how many Indian students must have been skipping out on their visas to force this change, at least one major university in Sydney has issued instructions to staff to process as many applications as possible before the deadline so that we can squeeze students in who wouldn’t otherwise qualify.

Qantas 1. What’s going on at Melbourne airport today? A number of further Qantas planes significantly delayed. For example, two flights to and from Melbourne to Perth have been delayed by up to four hours…

Which might explain Qantas 2. I’m booked first class on QF 09 Melbourne to Singapore at 3.30pm today. I just got a text message to say that the flight is delayed to 9.30pm. On calling the first lounge at Qantas, I was told that the plane had to do a “Perth run”. Said he could not say more than that. Why on earth would Qantas delay its Melbourne/Singapore/London flight by six hours to do a Perth domestic? I thought these legs on Qantas were the rainmakers… it does not sound good!

The old Rose Bay Afloat restaurant which is nestled near the MV Cape Don at the Old Coal Loader Wharf in Waverton, Sydney has also been told it has to move to a buoy in the middle of Sydney Harbour. The commercial vessel, which the owner wanted to refurbish and run as a floating restaurant again, has been given until September 9 to depart for oblivion. However, unlike the historical MV Cape Don, which was told to vamoose because of safety issues, Rose Bay Afloat was formally advised that the Coal Loader was being “re-developed in the near future”.

I’m hearing that Prof Jim Bishop is leaving the Cancer Institute of NSW to take up the position of Chief Health Officer with NSW Health. The latter vacant since the sudden disappearance of Dr Denise Robinson earlier this year.