Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Vocational and Technical Education. Is the minister aware that 39 Australian employees have been sacked from the Ballarat manufacturing company Maxi-TRANS while that same company has retained 25 employees imported from China on temporary skilled migration visas? Isn’t this the same company that last year put on hold eight Australian apprenticeships after it imported welders from China? Minister, why have these Australians living in my electorate, who were employed without sick leave, annual leave, holiday loading or any long-term employment contracts, now lost their jobs while imported workers have been given greater job security? Is this what the minister meant when he said in this place last year:

So I would invite the member for Ballarat to celebrate the fact that a local business is investing in itself and the local region and creating more job opportunities for more young people around Ballarat.

Yippee!

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