Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) to (5), as circulated in my name, together:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (table item 4), after "Schedules", insert "2A,".

(2) Schedule 2, item 1, page 5 (line 7), omit "or 140GBC".

(3) Schedule 2, item 1, page 5 (lines 12 to 15), omit "Section 140GBC provides for exemptions from the labour market testing condition to apply in relation to the required skill level and occupation for a nominated position.".

(4) Schedule 2, item 2, page 8 (line 22) to page 9 (line 28), omit section 140GBC.

(5) Page 12 (after line 12), after Schedule 3, insert:

Schedule 2A—Cap and disclosure for Subclass 457 visas

Migration Act 1958

1 At the end of section 38

  Add:

(3) In relation to Subclass 457 visas, the regulations are taken to have prescribed as a criterion that the grant of the visa would not cause the number of Subclass 457 visas granted in a particular financial year to exceed 6,000. For the purposes of subsection (2), this is taken to be a criterion allowed by subsection (1) of this section.

(4) In subsection (3):

  Subclass 457 visa means a visa referred to in the regulations as a Subclass 457 (Business (Long Stay)) visa or a Subclass 457 (Temporary Work (Skilled)) visa.

2 After section 140ZI

  Insert:

140ZIA Register of approved sponsors of 457 visas

(1) The Minister must maintain a register, to be known as the Register of Approved Sponsors of 457 Visas, in which the Minister includes the following particulars:

  (a) the identity of each approved sponsor who is sponsoring the holder of a Subclass 457 visa;

  (b) the number of holders of Subclass 457 visas being sponsored by that approved sponsor;

(c) a description of each position occupied by the holders of the Subclass 457 visas.

(2) The Register may be maintained by electronic means.

(3) The Register must be made available for inspection on the internet.

(4) The Register is not a legislative instrument.

(5) In this section:

  Subclass 457 visa means a visa referred to in the regulations as a Subclass 457 (Business (Long Stay)) visa or a Subclass 457 (Temporary Work (Skilled)) visa.

I do not wish to take up the time of the House again on this issue. I reiterate the irony of the ALP attacking the Liberal Party, who are only bringing 38,000 457 workers into the country. I reiterate the figures: almost 200,000 migrants a year are now coming into the country. There are a number of categories under which people can get workers. Why, over the last five years, do we suddenly have to bring 100,000 workers into Australia? There has been no burgeoning of unemployment. In fact, 16,000 people have been put off from manufacturing in the last 12 months alone and almost that number from the agricultural and tourism sectors as well. There is a huge work pool there that can be drawn upon. We do not need to go down this pathway.

In addressing the specific amendments here, we have asked that the 457 workers be capped at 6,000. I do not wish to embarrass Minister Burke, but he venomously attacked the Liberal Party when they were bringing in 15,000 a year. He and his government have been notoriously silent, when they are bringing in 125,000 a year, not 15,000 a year.

This thing is not a rort, insofar as you will not find people acting criminally in this regard. As far as I am concerned, the system is the rort. You now have complete control of your worker. He has no rights because you as the employer are holding the deportation order in your hand. Quite frankly, there are myriad arrangements by which you can bypass the award system. You cannot do that with an Australian worker because, somewhere down the track, he is going to blow the whistle. But a 457 worker aint ever going to blow the whistle because, when he blows the whistle, the whistle will be shoved down his gullet and he will be sent back overseas with the deportation order.

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