Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

perhaps we would actually have a balanced budget for the first time, Madam Speaker. Perhaps for the first time in 23 years under a Labor government we would have a balanced budget if the unions demanded it. That is why we are dealing with this bill now.

The reasons that they put forward for introducing this bill are, frankly, farcical. They have given two reasons why we need to be cracking down on 457 visas. The first is that the system has been rorted. There are 108,000 people on 457 visas, and the minister said about a month ago that this is being seriously rorted by employers to the extent that almost 10 per cent of those visas have been falsely given—they have been rorted by employers. He gave the figure of 10,000 people who should not be in this country because they have falsely been given a 457 visa—10,000 people.

But as the member for Kooyong said, where did this number come from? Apparently it is a very good figure according to the member for Werriwa—or was it the member for Holt who pointed this out?—he just dreamt this figure up. There is no evidence that there have been 10,000 rorts, none whatsoever. He dreamt this figure up. It was disgraceful to reduce the legitimacy of the 457 visa system, a system that has worked incredibly well to date, even according to the Prime Minister's own words. Even according to the Prime Minister's own words, the system has been working incredibly well. But he dreams of this figure of 10,000 rorts one day and then cannot substantiate it. But it is on the basis of this figure that we are actually introducing this bill today to add all sorts of red tape and all sorts of obligations upon employers to exercise their right to issue 457 visas for a highly skilled worker to come into this country.

The other reason they gave for needing to introduce this bill to crack down upon 457 visas is because they said, 'Well, look at the excessive growth of the 457 visa regime.' Okay, let us have a look at it. Let us have a look at the evidence. The evidence is that there has only been 1.7 per cent growth this year in 457 visas issued. Do you know how many visas that translates to? It is 940. Do you know how many people come in on a boat each day—about 100 or 150, 200? This would be less than a week's worth of boat people, but that is the growth that we have had in the 457 visa category this year and that is the figure which they are saying is so outrageous that we need to be introducing this bill this evening as an emergency measure to be passed before this parliament rises because, apparently, there has been a 1.7 per cent growth. It is a disgrace, and some of the sensible members sitting over there—Mr Fitzgibbon and, as I said, the member for Holt—are ashamed of this bill that has been put before us.

Only 940 visas have been introduced above and beyond last year's measures, and last year of course was when the Prime Minister herself famously said that she believed they had 'these settings right, particularly with short-term 457 visas'. That was last year. That was 12 months ago that the Prime Minister herself, Julia Gillard said—and I notice that the Labor members have gone quiet when I quote Julia Gillard from 12 months ago—'I believe we have got the visa settings right, particularly with short-term 457 visas.' So we have had a 1.7 per cent growth since that time and that apparently has caused a catastrophe. Those additional 940 people we have had through the 457 visa process, those skilled workers working in our hospitals, in government departments and sometimes in the unions, and indeed in the Prime Minister's office, are apparently causing this catastrophe so that we have to rush this bill through and strangle the 457 visa process.

The other issue of course is that there has been no consultation in relation to this bill. In some respects we should not be surprised because they are almost not consulting at all on any measure that they are introducing into this parliament at the moment. But this measure however has such a significant impact—

Debate interrupted.

See this speech in context