Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You have said that you do not want people on 457s coming to this country. That is effectively what you have said. And this is despite former minister for immigration Chris Bowen saying in January that you, as a government, have got the balance right on 457s. And the Prime Minister of this country, Julia Gillard, saying in China when she was visiting there just recently that the balance is right on 457s. This is despite the number of people on 457s in this country dramatically increasing to the record high number of 125,000 today. This is despite half the members of the Transport Workers Union, including Tony Sheldon's own personal staff, being here on 457s. This is despite the Prime Minister's Scottish 'Svengali' John McTernan also being here on a 457. You have put aside all of that evidence and the fact that people coming to this country on 457s are filling voids in our labour force in information technology, engineering, health services and the resources sector to confect an argument against 457s based on what you are being told by your union paymasters.

This is not good for this country. We have seen a government become totally beholden to the power of the union movement. This bill before the House is just the latest example of it. This bill before the House is the latest instalment in an attack on foreign workers and an attack on the most productive sectors of our economy. It is very funny that on the 457s the Prime Minister said:

We inherited from the previous government a 457 temporary foreign worker visa program that was totally out of control …

If it is so out of control, why did you see the number of foreign workers coming to this country increase dramatically to today's record high number of 125,000? You did it because you understood back then that 457s were an important part of the economy. Even Chris Bowen said:

… migration is shaped by Australia's economic needs, and the Temporary Business 457 visa is a key pillar in this approach.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said:

… we will need skilled migration. I believe we’ve got the visa settings right particularly with short term 457 visas.

So we know that you started a war on 457s for the very same reason you are starting a war on those foreign workers working on offshore resource activities and doing so to improve the economic management of those resource companies that produce export dollars for the Australian economy and help grow our system. That is the key issue here.

In conclusion, we cannot support the bill before this House because there has not been the rigorous consultation with the industry, because there has not been an assessment of the economic impact this higher regulatory burden will have and because of the complicating factors it may have for our border protection policies and our ability to protect our borders. Most of all, we cannot support this because this is just a payback to the union movement by the Labor Party.

Debate adjourned.

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