Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, the Illawarra Region Innovation and Investment Fund has led to significant new investment and investment in the pipeline, including new food manufacturing, innovative printing facilities and a new mental health facility, just to name a few. These are important investments to help an economy transition. Of course, it is added to by the fact that the National Broadband Network is being rolled out quicker and in greater density in the Illawarra and Southern Highlands region than in any other area in the country. This will be the game changer for the Illawarra.

The Illawarra and Southern Highlands is laying the foundations we need to build a stronger economy now and for the future. And it will be based on six key assets. First is our skilled and talented local workforce, with expertise gained from over 100 years of experience in engineering manufacturing and mining. Second is the rollout of the National Broadband Network, as I have mentioned, which will connect our region to the markets of the world and enhance the development of new industries, and transform the way we live, work and play.

Third is the University of Wollongong, which serves the region and the country by producing world-class professionals in medicine, law, education, engineering and information technology. In fact, one quarter of all information and communication technology graduates in Australia come from the University of Wollongong. The government has put over $100 million investment into capital works at the university and there is more investment in the pipeline. Fourth, there is the Port Kembla harbour, which gives the potential to develop a freight transport and logistics hub for the region. The Australian government's $25.5 million investment in preconstruction work and engineering work on the Maldon-Dumbarton rail link is helping to make this potential a future reality. The Maldon-Dumbarton rail link would connect Port Kembla to the major mines and freight corridors of the Central-West and Western Sydney. It can also take pressure off the Sydney-Wollongong passenger line by removing some of the freight off that line.

Fifth, we are blessed with a wonderful natural environment: our stunning beaches, rolling green hills and magnificent escarpments all provide an impressive backdrop to our daily lives in the Illawarra region. Not only that, but our cultural diversity and strong arts and sporting culture is a part of the foundation for future opportunities in tourism, sports and other economic development.

Finally our services sector: the health and aged-care services are rapidly expanding. Indeed, the largest employer in the region is now community services and health. The Illawarra is an attractive and affordable destination for retirees and our potential to develop a seniors economy is significant.

I have spoken before in this place about the need to ensure that our local manufacturers and local workers get a fair share of the enormous opportunities that are being generated by Australia's mining and resources boom. I welcome the fact that earlier today we had the opportunity to debate our plan for Australian jobs—and that passed through the House of Representatives. This is an important piece of legislation which will connect the manufacturers, the fabricators, the industries and workshops within my electorate and right around the country to the benefits of the mining boom, providing work and opportunities now and into the future.

I would like to say something about the debate that is raging at the moment about the use of 457 visas. There has been some speculation about widespread rorts within the scheme. We do not need to do a forensic analysis of this to know that there is something wrong when I have got workers in my electorate who say they have applied for jobs in businesses and have been turned back only to know that overseas workers have been brought in on 457 visas to fill the jobs that they are ready, willing and able to do. I think it is wrong and I do this on the basis of an understanding that well over one quarter of the workforce of my electorate has come to the Illawarra and surrounding regions from another country. At another time they came to work in the steelworks, the mines and the services industry within the Illawarra so there is no objection to workers coming from overseas to work here. In fact, my electorate was founded on that. But you have something that is very wrong when you have workers who are ready, willing and able to stand up and take a job and they are being overlooked by employers, those very same employers who are coming to government and saying, 'We want the right to access to 457 visa workers to do these jobs.' Close to five or six years ago, the Leader of the Opposition referred to workers as job snobs if they would refuse employment with one business because they thought it was not good enough for them. Well, we run the risk of some employers being the new job snobs by the fact that they are overlooking local workers to hire workers from overseas—and that is simply not good enough.

I have been pressing the immigration minister to introduce new measures to ensure a local work test is put in place for these workers. I am particularly concerned about workers who have been thrown out of lifelong employment and they are now in their 50s, seeking work and are willing to travel for work and they feel that they are being discriminated against in their search for work in this regard. I am hopeful that the minister of immigration will respond to this and ensure that a new test is put into place to ensure employers must test the local labour market and must offer available positions to local appropriately skilled workers before they turn to the government and ask the government to approve 457 visas in this regard. It is a good budget and it deserves our support in difficult times. (Time expired)

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