Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question and his interest in 457 visas. The government supports the current arrangements where we have two-thirds of the permanent stream used for skilled migrants. That is a good thing and should continue. We support limited work rights for students and holiday makers and we support the legitimate use of 457s where there is a genuine skills shortage. However, there has been advice provided to me, as it was to my predecessor, that there are problems with the 457 scheme.

The first concern is the large gap between the 457 growth rate and the total employment growth rate. This is illustrated by a 68 per cent increase in 457s for workers in the information, communications and technology sector between 2008-09 and 2011-12. At the same time as this very significant rise in the applications that were granted we have seen nominal wage rates in these positions fall by five per cent for information professions and 12 per cent in technical professions. This is the nominal fall in the rate, so the real wage rate fall is even more dramatic than that.

The positions for those 457 applicants now have lower wage rates than jobs that are currently filled by the permanent workforce in that sector. This is of deep concern to the government and it should be a concern for those opposite. That is why we need these reforms. We need to ensure that employers demonstrate a genuine need for 457 applicants. We need to ensure we demonstrate that they sought to employ local workers. We need to ensure that we show a genuine commitment to training local workers. For that reason, we need these reforms.

The opposition leader has said that he opposes these reforms. In fact, he said that he wants the 457 scheme to be the mainstay of immigration. The member for Cook, in a speech to the AMMA conference last August, said he wanted to remove the blockages and restore the access to 457s—that is, bring it back to the days of the Howard government. He went on further to say:

While this process works for those who can sponsor, I am concerned there is no real pathway for skilled migrants to come independently to Australia on a temporary labour visa, seek employment on arrival …

That is what he wants to do—radically depart from the current 457 scheme. That will have a fundamental adverse impact on employment conditions in this country. (Time expired)

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