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

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Temporary Sponsored Visas) Bill 2013, a bill which will see Fair Work inspectors into every workplace where there are people with 457s and a bill which will see an increase in the regulation that employers will have to comply with if they want to bring people to this country on a 457. I stand up before you both in sorrow and in anger. I stand before you in sorrow about a once-great Labor Party. I must say that the member for Werriwa and his brother, the member for Batman—both of whom are in the chamber today— and the member for Hotham were proud of the great Labor tradition that had produced great Labor leaders. But to stoop this low, to do the barracking of the union movement, to put handcuffs on employers around this country is a low point for your side of politics.

I rise in anger because Australian businesses big and small do not need another kick in the guts, as this bill contemplates. Why are we here? Why are we debating this bill today? We are debating this bill because the union movement has once again taken control of the Labor Party. The union movement represents only 13 per cent of the private sector workforce around Australia. If you take into account public sector employees, it rises to 20 per cent. If you go to any Labor federal or state conference, the votes on the floor are 50 per cent. If you go to the Labor caucus, it is 100 per cent. If you go to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, he is the former secretary of the Australian Workers Union who Kathy Jackson, the former head of the HSU, has described as being 'Dracula in charge of the blood bank'. What we have before this House tonight is just another bill in a litany of legislation which we have been asked to comment about and which is all about increasing the patronage and power of the Australian union movement.

Unions have an important role to play in society—I would be the first to say that—but when they have too much control and raise false arguments about the 457 debate, for example, they are doing more harm than good to the Australian economy. In this place just the other day we debated a bill about foreign workers on offshore resource activities like offshore oil rigs that they wanted to make subject again to the Migration Act and to receive visas. We have been debating in this place greater right-of-entry provisions which will ensure that no employee in Australia can eat their lunch in peace and quiet. No longer can they have a coke and a fish and chips or burger in peace and quiet. We have seen greenfields sites being subject to increased power from the union movement. We have seen the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The Building and Construction Commission was a cop on the beat designed to stop lawlessness in the construction and building sector, and helped produce billions of dollars of increased productivity gains for the Australian economy. It came out of the Cole royal commission, which the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, was instrumental in setting up. But all those elements of the workplace environment have been subject to a grab for power and patronage by the Australian union movement. Tonight's 457 bill is just the latest instalment in that.

Let me tell you about 457s. 457s are a very important element in the Australian economy. There are more than 108,000 people as of April this year who are here on a 457. That is less than one per cent of the Australian economy. Those people are filling voids in the workforce in areas like information technology, health, resources, doctors and nurses and engineers. These are people who are not seeking welfare from the Australian taxpayer. These are people who are not having the Australian taxpayer pay for their health or for their education. These are people who are coming to Australia to bring their skills to fill a void in the workforce They come here for up to four years and are allowed to go to and from Australia as they see fit. They are able to bring their families here.

These 457s are in heavy use in Australia because there have been gaps in our labour force. It is as simple as that. In fact, 70 per cent of people who are in Australia on a 457 are in a professional or managerial role. They are not all in the labourer type of role. They are so important to the Australian economy that the Prime Minister's own Scottish Svengali, John McTernan, is here in Australia on a 457.

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