Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

During parliament this week, in fact in most question times, and during a number of debates that the government has had and many of their speakers have had, there has been all of this talk and the excitement about the free-trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea. There has been talk of the billions of dollars that it will create for the Australian economy and for Australian businesses, particularly in agriculture. There has been talk about the jobs that it will create.

But this debate is quite hollow and this rhetoric—I believe it is rhetoric—is not really exposing or answering the questions that many in the community have, including in my own community. There is concern about the jobs that have been created by these free-trade agreements: who will work them? That is because within these free-trade agreements, there is the ability for people to come over here on 457 visas and for people to come over here on holiday work visas to work in this country. What we are learning every day through investigations with Fair Work Australia and what I am learning every day when I go out to workplaces is that people who are on these temporary visas here in Australia tend to be exploited. They are an underclass of workers who are being exploited in our workplaces. Our Fair Work system is struggling to handle this issue.

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