Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

This is a program that delivers for Australia. These are people who come to this country to contribute from day one, whether they are of Indian nationality, of Chinese nationality or of Filipino nationality. They come and they work and they contribute, and the vast majority increasingly go on to be permanent residents of this country. I can think of no better migrant to Australia than one who comes via this program, one who comes on a 457 and offers their skills, and for four years demonstrates their capacity to contribute and then applies for permanent residence and goes on to citizenship. The rate of unemployment of people in the employer-sponsored permanent migration program and those who come through 457s is 0.5 per cent. That is the achievement. Not only that, they add value by the skills they bring to the country and the transfer that takes place.

That occurs in other countries as well. I refer the House to a paper by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Partnership for a New American Economy. They found that two primary categories of temporary foreign workers in the US are associated with strong job creation for Americans. The study found that states with greater numbers of temporary workers in the H1B program for skilled workers and the H2B program for less skilled nonagricultural workers had higher employment amongst US natives. Adding 100 H1B workers created additional 183 jobs for US citizens; adding 100 H2B visa class workers created 464 jobs for Americans.

This program creates jobs for Australians. It brings the skills that enable business to continue. How many jobs do you think Australians get if the business closes? That is the question I pose through the Deputy Speaker to the House. How many jobs do you think are going to be there if businesses go bust because they cannot get the people they need to meet the contracts and commitments they have?

But what this government is doing through this measure is seeking, at the behest of the unions, to tie this matter up in union red tape and to choke this program's contribution to Australia. It chokes the appreciation that we have of the contribution of skilled migrants to this country. The members on that side of the House should be ashamed of this measure. Bipartisanship ended on skilled migration the day that this Minister for Immigration and Citizenship came into office and handed control of the migration policy of this country to the unions. Bipartisanship ended on that day.

The coalition stands by skilled migration. It stands by the contribution of the thousands and millions of skilled migrants who have built this country, and we stand here in support of them in opposing this bill by a government that is trying to ram things through for their union mates. They have not done their homework. They refuse to do their homework. They are trying to rush this through in the last, dying two weeks of this parliament as a bid to pay off their union mates before the election is held. (Time expired)

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