Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome this MPI because it is actually an opportunity to talk about something positive. As I said at question time, at last we have the opportunity, the occasion, where the opposition support a government policy—and yet they cannot bring themselves to be positive about it.

This is about managing the strength in the Australian economy. We hear a lot from the opposition, talking down the economy, and we just heard it again from the shadow minister, which I will come to in a second. Remember the minerals resource rent tax? It was 'a dagger to the heart' of the Australian minerals industry—'a dagger to the heart', we were told, of the Australian economy. And then there is the carbon price. That is going to end Australia being a first-world economy, according to the opposition. That is going to end Whyalla, and we are no longer going to be a developed economy.

Now we have the member for Cook saying it is 'sovereign risk'. Well, perhaps sovereign risk is the reason why we have a half-a-trillion-dollar investment pipeline in the Australian resources sector. Perhaps sovereign risk is the reason why Skills Australia estimates we will need 89,000 more workers in the resources sector by 2016 compared to 2010.

This does provide some challenges for managing this economy. Many of these projects of course will be built in the next couple of years—as the member for Groom, who is at the table, very well knows, as the shadow minister for resources. Many of these will be built in just the next few years: 2012, 2013, 2014. So the demands on our labour force will be very strong indeed.

It is important we get this right. The resources sector contributes 39 per cent of Australia's exports—eight per cent of GDP. Each additional job in the resources sector creates three more jobs. Every job created in the resource sector creates three indirect jobs. So if skill shortages put a handbrake on any of these projects, if skill shortages mean that one of these projects cannot proceed, then the ramifications are very significant indeed.

Let us go through how we got to this point. The National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce, chaired by the now Special Minister of State, recommended enterprise migration agreements in 2010. The budget announced them in 2011 and, in September 2011, I announced the guidelines. I said earlier that Roy Hill made its submission late last year or early this year; the member for Cook said 'pre-Christmas'. Discussions began last year. It was submitted formally in February. So that is in relation to Roy Hill.

The biggest challenge in this investment pipeline is not the carbon price; it is not the mineral resource rent tax; it is not sovereign risk. The biggest challenge in ensuring these projects proceed is access to labour, to ensure that they finish on time and on budget.

Take the Roy Hill project. This $9.5 billion project will employ, in construction, over 8,000 people. It will produce 55 million tonnes of iron ore each year for 20 years. Its current financing is the largest debt financing occurring on the planet this year. When people are looking at this project and deciding whether to finance it, deciding whether to be involved, they look at things like whether it can be finished on time and on budget. What they look at is whether there is some assurance about the skilled labour they need to finish it on time and on budget. EMAs are designed to manage this risk upfront. Any business can apply to sponsor a 457 worker, and if that application is in order it will be granted. Large construction projects regularly sponsor 457 workers. This is well known throughout the economy.

Enterprise migration agreements are designed to manage workforce needs upfront after rigorous labour force analysis to determine what the project will need, how many extra workers it may need and an agreed way forward. The principle of an enterprise migration agreement is to say to a firm, in this case Roy Hill, or to a project: if you cannot find enough workers we will give you these 457 visas. In relation to this project we have said: if you cannot find enough workers you will get 1,700 457 visas over three years. That means they must employ at least 6,700 Australians on this project. They must employ that number of people under this enterprise migration agreement. That is why this is a big win for the Australian economy and a big win for Australians looking for work in the resources sector. In addition, if this project fell over—if the financiers said, 'We can't be guaranteed of its ability to be completed on time and on budget'—there could be 2,000 ongoing jobs lost. In return for the certainty that the government has provided through the enterprise migration agreement, we have required Roy Hill to agree to 2,000 traineeships, 200 apprenticeships and 100 Indigenous training places.

This is a very substantial win, not only for jobs but also for training in the Australian resources sector. Two thousand Australians will have the opportunity to get trained in the resources sector, and 100 Indigenous people will have the opportunity for training in construction. We have negotiated a particular emphasis on mature-aged workers for the apprenticeships so that people who are affected by structural adjustment elsewhere in the economy—whether they be in the eastern states or Western Australia—or have lost their jobs can have a chance at a new career, a new opportunity to work in the resources sector.

It is important that this 1,700 figure be put in some context—1,700 is a lot of people, but we need to put it in context. There are at the moment, give or take, 90,000 457 visa holders in Australia. There have been 13,250 granted in Western Australia this year. So, these 1,700 people need to be seen in the context of 457 visas that are issued every day. Those 90,000 457 workers in Australia make up 0.8 per cent of the 11.5 million workers in Australia. I make these points because they go to the relevance of the 1,700 figure. For 1,700 457 visas we have been able to guarantee a project of 8,000 employees. This is a $9.5 billion project, a project which will produce 55 million tonnes of iron ore each year and produce those export earnings each year for Australia. That is good news and you think the opposition would welcome it. You would think the opposition would support this being implemented and not be so negative at every opportunity.

This is something the government has been working on since the Special Minister of State made that recommendation in 2010. Guidelines were issued, consultations occurred with trade unions and the sector about the guidelines, and then, of course, there was an investigation of this particular project. Let me make it very clear, because the opposition goes to the old who dunnit—the old question of who knew what, when and what did you know and when did you know it? That is all they are interested in—the intrigue, the politics, the point scoring. Let me make this clear—

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