Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Because the opposition is not listening and is preferring to bellow, let me go through it again. I believe when we are looking at jobs and opportunities in our nation those jobs and opportunities should go to Australians first. They should go to Australians and we should make sure that we are always providing, particularly to our children but to our nation as a whole, the skills and abilities to seize those job opportunities. Even with the world's best training system there will be times when, because of peak demand or very specialised skills, you will need to fill skills shortages from overseas with temporary overseas workers. That will always happen, but I do not believe that a program of temporary overseas workers should be used to substitute for appropriate investment in training and skills—for example, the way in which that happened under the former Howard government in the healthcare system. I do not believe that that should occur.

I also do not believe that, where there are Australian workers with skills and attributes to do the job, they should not get those job opportunities. Our 457 visa system, a system now with more than 100,000 people in it, should be the subject of crackdowns and rigour. We will always aim for that. I know the Leader of the Opposition has an entirely different set of policies and I think he is most decidedly wrong on that. We believe in jobs and this is the day on which we can point to our track record of creating jobs in this country. (Time expired)

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