Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Temporary Sponsored Visas) Bill 2013. This bill will add further regulatory burden on sponsors using the 457 visa program. I also believe that this bill is a politically based bill in an attempt to demonise foreign workers in this country and build support for the government in maybe some of its metropolitan areas. The 457 visa program is designed to quickly fill the skilled worker vacancies that emerge in different industries. I find it disturbing that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship publicly claimed that there had been 10,000 cases of abuse of the 457 visa program yet he has provided no evidence to support these claims.

Particularly in regional Australia, the 457 visa program plays a vital role. In my electorate alone there are many vacancies filled by workers on 457s in the more obvious professions. We have got boilermakers and welders, spray painters, carpenters and auto-electricians playing a vital role. In Moree alone the engineering companies that provide infrastructure to the agriculture sector rely heavily on 457 visa workers. One company in particular is struggling to be able to meet the demand of infrastructure for the irrigation industry since the breaking of the drought three years ago in jobs in building irrigation infrastructure. These people are not taking work away from Australians.

Because of the already quite significant regulation and paperwork attached to 457 visa holders, it is preferable to employ Australian workers who have those necessary skills. But the reality is that many people with those skills do not want to work in regional Australia. Quite frankly, I cannot understand why. I could not think of working anywhere else. But that is the case. With the added competition from the mining sector, many Australian workers with those skills have gone into that sector.

The changes this government has made in the last three years to the criteria for 457 workers in the agricultural sector has meant that very few people have come in to work in the agricultural sector under the 457 program. With the removal of the category of farm overseer, it has made it almost impossible for farmers to sponsor workers under the 457 program.

As we speak here tonight, a lot of the work on the very large wheat crop that has been planted right through the wheat belt of New South Wales, right through my electorate, is being done by people here on holiday visas—the 417s, the backpackers—who come and spend a couple of months working on a farm, driving a tractor, planting wheat or harvesting wheat, planting cotton or picking cotton or something like that. That in itself has created a problem in filling the worker gap in regional Australia. Indeed, I have been working with former immigration minister Bowen and shadow minister Morrison, and with a large committee in the northern part of my electorate, on providing a pathway for some of these holiday visa workers to actually transition to a more permanent footing.

Either you have a liking or an aptitude for farm work and a liking for living in that sort of location or you do not. Unfortunately, for many of those people who do get to work on these large farms and find they do have an aptitude for it and would like to stay for perhaps a year or two, that option is not open to them because it does not fit into the 417 category. So there is still room in regional Australia for a more direct pathway.

I think the New South Wales Department of Health is one of the largest employers of 457 visa workers, nurses and trained health workers in the aged-care sector right across regional Australia. This is a real issue. I was absolutely flabbergasted when I heard that this government was performing this onslaught of negativity and attack on 457 visa workers. I just wonder how many of these workers the government knows and whether it knows or understands what they are doing. I have worked with a lot of people here on 457 visas from China, India and other countries and have been in admiration of the dedication and skill that they put into the job and also their determined efforts to undertake courses to improve their levels of English and hard work that they put into becoming members of the community.

One of the 457 visa people in my electorate, who came here as a radio announcer, has worked for some years in western New South Wales at a station that struggles to keep other staff there for any length of time and has provided a great service.

457 workers are working in specialised earthmoving sales—the sorts of jobs that perhaps you are thinking 457 workers would not be doing. That is happening right across regional Australia. As it is, the productivity of regional Australia at the moment is being severely hampered by the lack of skilled workers, without impacting on us any further. Many family businesses are under a lot of stress because they are actually carrying the extra burden of trying to meet deadlines or getting crops planted or harvested using family members. Indeed, it is leading to a lot of excessive hours being worked and having a real effect on the quality of life of people in those areas.

I would also like to touch on the unemployed people who I have in my electorate. I think it is important in this debate that we do not forget those people. At the moment, many of the people who are unemployed do not have the skills necessary to fill these jobs that the 457 visa workers are doing. But we must not forget them and we must not just rely on overseas workers. In many instances, the 457 visa workers are role models through their skills, ability and work ethic to some of the people transitioning into work from long-term unemployment, particularly to the Aboriginal communities and workers in western New South Wales. We must keep working as a community and as a government. We must keep striving to provide opportunities, particularly for our young ones, and encourage them to stay at school, get a trade, become skilled and take on these roles.

Indeed, the Clontarf Foundation, which has been operating for 15 years in Western Australia and which has just opened four academies in the last 12 or 15 months in my electorate, is doing just that. The Clontarf foundation has been mentoring young Aboriginal boys and men right through school into trades and employment, ultimately giving them a life that many of us take for granted.

I am not going to stand here and say that 457 visa workers are the answer to all our problems, but what I am saying is that they play a vital role. I think this legislation is horrendous in the fact that it is not addressing an issue that is genuine. This is, I believe, quite a xenophobic and racist piece of legislation designed to apply the prejudices of some sections of our community in an attempt to garner support for the government. This comes at the expense of not only these workers who play a vital role in the Australian workforce, but the many businesses throughout Australia, particularly in regional Australia, that rely on these 457 workers to provide a vital role. This applies not only in their businesses but in providing an economic base for regional Australia and the country as a whole.

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