Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased today to speak on the Migration Amendment (Employer Sanctions) Bill 2006. It is high time that this legislation was instituted. The legislation was introduced into the parliament last year and has been waiting to progress for some time. Why do we need such legislation? This bill provides for a scheme of sanctions on employers, labour suppliers and others who knowingly or recklessly employ illegal workers or refer them for work. This bill addresses a concern in the community about the exploitation of illegal workers. It addresses this problem by creating a series of new offences for employers, labour suppliers and others. The offences are aimed at persons who employ or refer for work anyone who is an unlawful noncitizen or is a noncitizen who has breached the work conditions of their visa. Quite rightly, it has never been more relevant that this country address this situation of illegal workers.

Probably the highest source of illegal workers in this country is people overstaying their visas. Australia is quite proud of its system of migration, which has the utmost integrity. In fact, our migration system, and the fact that we know who comes and goes, is the envy of the world. That is why the government insists on border protection. People who come here illegally and people who come on planes and disappear, for whatever reason, or do not leave when their visas have expired have the potential to fall into this pool of illegal workers.

Because of our very low unemployment levels, there is a huge demand for unskilled workers in a range of industries. I would like a dollar for every time someone in the community has asked me recently whether there is anything I can do to use not just those people who come here on a 457 skill visa but those on semi-skilled visas to address our huge problem. A company in Perth came to me the other day and asked whether there was any way they could bring in workers to drive their large fleet of trucks. They just cannot get anyone in Australia. They waste money on a weekly basis with advertisements in the paper for truck drivers but they just do not get any responses. I directed them to an immigration outreach officer in Perth who is charged with the responsibility of attracting people to areas where there are workforce shortages. There is one immigration outreach officer in the Chamber of Commerce, in Perth, and one with the Department of Minerals and Mining. They are addressing huge workforce shortages in our state, where unemployment levels have reached historic lows of 3.1 per cent.

Mr Deputy Speaker Quick, I imagine that is a figure that Tasmania would envy but, even so, it causes its own problems. As a result, there is an attraction for people to overstay their visas and to work illegally, as Australia is going through a strong economic boom and prices paid to all workers are extremely high. Just to put it into context, at Christmas lunch my nephew, who is working as a TA in Karratha, told me earns something like $1,200 a week. He is only 21. That is the sort of wage that is being paid around Australia at the moment. And they reckon politicians are paid too much! To put it in context, there is a great opportunity for people to be employed in this country but there is also a huge pool of illegal workers, as the previous speaker said.

Illegal workers do cause a lot of problems. Firstly, they take job opportunities away from Australian citizens and lawful migrants. Even with unemployment at 3.1 per cent, there are still people in some areas looking for work and an illegal worker has a potential to take a job that could be theirs. Secondly, the cost of detecting illegal workers is an unwelcome burden on the taxpayer. The compliance measures are very costly, particularly with the numbers we are talking about. Thirdly, in some cases illegal workers are linked to organised crime, particularly in the sex industry. This is obviously a concern, because they work in aggravating conditions, which other speakers have referred to.

The industries that illegal workers are drawn to are quite extensive. They are in areas such as the construction industry, the catering industry and the sex industry. That gives great concern for greater exploitation. Quite rightly, the unions of Australia have made it quite clear that they want to work with the authorities to make sure that illegal workers do not come into industries where the unions are involved and undercut the conditions and work rights of people being lawfully employed.

This is a real concern, particularly in seasonal industries, where there are seasonal workers. You only have to think about the number of people involved in, for example, picking strawberries in some of the areas in my state. If there is some evidence that immigration officials or the police are going to inspect workers on a particular strawberry farm, you can see people diving over fences and hiding under anything they can find so that they will not be detained or interviewed. So there is still a problem. This legislation puts the onus back on the employer to say whether they have done everything possible to make sure that the person they employ has work rights and is a legal worker.

The bill contains a number of fault based criminal offences relating to employers who engage noncitizens for work. I will put these on the record. The offences are: allowing an unlawful noncitizen to work—this offence is considered an aggravated offence if the illegal worker is being exploited; allowing a noncitizen to work in breach of a visa condition—this is considered an aggravated offence if the illegal worker is being exploited; referring an unlawful noncitizen for work—an aggravated offence is committed if the illegal worker being referred will be exploited; and referring a noncitizen for work in breach of a visa condition—an aggravated offence will be committed if the prospective illegal worker will be exploited. There are also a number of penalties which I will refer to shortly.

There is no excuse for people to employ an illegal worker and then claim that they did not know. As others have referred to, the department has put in place the entitlement verification online system, which is basically a faxback facility that allows the employer to check, within 48 hours, the status of the person that they are employing or potentially employing and to check the work entitlements of these noncitizens.

There is an enormous range of people who are endeavouring to get jobs, particularly in areas like the Riverina where there is a huge seasonal work shortage. Until recently, these people were unable to find work mainly because they were only given three-month visas. Their visa conditions have now been varied to the extent where the visas have been rolled over to six months. This allows people greater flexibility in applying for those work rights.

It is said that in the north-west of Australia, Western Australia, Broome and North Queensland the hospitality industry in particular would almost have to close if they did not have the opportunity to employ these people on vocational working visas. Many of us have been to these places where students, backpackers et cetera from a range of countries are working on this visa entitlement. Some do this as part of a year off from their studies or they do it as part of a world trip before they go back to the workforce in their country. Many of them see the attractiveness of Australia, which is great. Quite often, they come back on skilled visas later on—a visa we are very keen to have them on.

There have been attacks—and we have heard some from the other side today—about this being exploited in terms of 457 visas. It is amazing that those opposite criticise the 457 visa system, which allows skilled workers to work in areas of need. These areas of need are published on MODL—which, at the moment, describes basically every skill you can think of. Those opposite say that people are being exploited because they are not employed in the skill area that they received a 457 visa for. It is actually an offence if that happens. If you bring somebody here on a 457 skilled visa and then employ them on terms and conditions that do not meet that visa requirement, you have actually committed an offence and the compliance people will certainly catch up with you when this is reported. The expected growth of the 457 program in this country has not happened, but it is a huge growth area that is being addressed. To cover 100 per cent would just be unrealistic, but that is the aim. As I said, if 457 visas are being exploited by ruthless employers, that will be exposed and penalties will apply.

Having come from a state like Western Australia, it is amazing to see the Labor Party here in Canberra banging on about, ‘Shock, horror, these 457 visas,’ when the greatest users of 457 visas are state Labor governments. In fact, the greatest user of 457 visas is the New South Wales government in the area of health delivery—such as nurses and other medical professionals. I understand even Mr Rudd employs some of his staff on AWAs. Though they are certainly not on 457 visas, it is an example of the hypocrisy you get in this part of the world.

In Western Australia, the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party and Treasurer, Mr Ripper, is reported in the paper as complaining bitterly that the federal government will not relax the terms and conditions of the 457 visas to allow greater flexibility to attract more workers to Western Australia. We heard the other day that BHP is looking for around 200 workers immediately for one of its operations in the north-west. Unless BHP can get those 200 people expeditiously, that project cannot go forward. So, in one part of the country, federal Labor criticises and rails against 457 visas and, in the rest of Australia, state governments sponsor these visas and are asking the federal government to relax the terms and conditions.

The reality in Australia at the moment is that we are seeking more workers, and there have to be ways of providing for semiskilled workers in the workforce—as, for example, Italy has. However, we do not agree with Italy’s program, because we would like to think that if somebody comes to this country they will be entitled to citizenship if they stay here long enough. If you go to Italy as a guest worker, you can never get citizenship. That is, in some respects, a form of exploitation, because you could spend your whole life in Italy, have children there and never become an Italian citizen. In Australia, the level of skills required of guest workers and semiskilled workers is relaxed, particularly in regional areas and in the north of Australia. This needs to be looked at, and there needs to be a bipartisan approach if we really want to see the rest of Australia go ahead. You cannot argue against the fact that we are desperately short of skilled and semiskilled workers, and while this situation exists we need to find ways to help.

The government have addressed this shortage of workers through the harvest trail initiative and by increasing the number of working holiday-maker visas. We are very proud to say that those initiatives are working and it is helping fruit growers and growers of other seasonal crops throughout Australia—probably even in your state, Mr Deputy Speaker Quick. We have increased the annual migration program by expanding the temporary business entry visa program and by allowing extended stays for working holidaymakers who have worked for at least three months in regional Australia. The funny thing about it is that experience shows that some guest workers will not return home when their visas expire but instead find a way to make Australia their home, if they can do it legally. I think that should be encouraged because, as we know, Australia has a problem with negative population replacement.

In terms of penalties, it needs to be recorded that the maximum penalty for offences would be two years imprisonment or $13,200 for individuals and $66,000 for companies. This legislation does create an aggravated offence provision for situations where an employer knowingly exploits a worker in a reckless manner. This particularly applies in cases of sexual servitude, where somebody might think they are going to work in a restaurant, often of ethnic origin, and then find that it is not the type of skilled work that they were not looking for.

This legislation is timely. It addresses the concerns of the workforce and of Australian society in terms of the way we should conduct ourselves, our obligations and the humanitarian rights of people who come from countries where they are desperate to earn money. Somebody was telling me just the other day about the integrity of Australia’s migration system. They had visited Dubai, and the United Arab Emirates is desperately short of workers. We know of the legendary wealth in Dubai, and yet the guest workers live in tents out in the desert and are bussed in daily. They live in rather ordinary conditions in oppressive heat and on a mere pittance. We do not support that way of bringing semiskilled workers into this country. We think there is a far better way. But there has to be scrutiny, there has to be an orderly system, and this is what this legislation does. I commend the bill to the House.

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