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

I thank the member for Throsby for his very important question and also his ongoing advocacy for workers in the Illawarra in his electorate who are concerned about ensuring that their jobs are protected and also the opportunities they and the young people in Illawarra have to be trained and fill jobs before employers seek to fill those jobs from temporary overseas workers.

Can I say today we have introduced into the House very important legislation that ensures that Australian residents and citizens will be preferred before employers can seek applications for temporary skilled workers. That is a very important piece of public policy and I will tell you why. There are legitimate reasons for the temporary skilled stream, and there are employers who do the right thing, but there are people who can be exploited if there is a misuse of the scheme. You might want to read the Fairfax newspaper. Firstly, there are those overseas workers who have been exploited, underpaid and treated very shabbily and badly and in many cases it would appear unlawfully. That is unfair. We need to make sure we protect the interests of those workers. We also have to ensure that the 457 scheme is not being used in a manner that actually deprives and denies workers in this country getting jobs first.

I refer to the Migration Council of Australia's survey where they said 15 per cent of employers in this country have no trouble at all finding local employment and yet they do not employ locals. That is a damning statistic and it should not happen. That same survey said that seven per cent of 457 applicants were paid less than Australian workers. That should not happen. It is not fair for the overseas worker, it is not fair for the Australian worker who misses out and it is not fair for the employer who does the right thing and uses the 457 scheme properly and is at a competitive disadvantage against the employer who does the wrong thing.

This is very important public policy. That is why we have taken steps to fix the problem identified in the scheme. We have announced regulations to tighten the scheme and today we have introduced legislation that requires employers in the majority of occupations to show that they have genuinely sought labour locally by putting an ad in the newspaper, in a trade publication or website before being given access to the 457 scheme. They will have to satisfy the department that they have genuinely looked for local workers before they filled those positions with temporary skilled workers from overseas.

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