Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Last year, the Prime Minister promised he would keep labour market testing under Australia's temporary skilled migration program. Labor market testing requires employers to advertise jobs to Australians before turning to overseas workers. The Prime Minister has broken his promise in his China FTA and now he has given parliament information that is factually wrong.

Yesterday, he was asked why the FTA's memorandum of understanding on investment facilitation arrangements—IFAs—states:

… there will be no requirement for labour market testing to enter into an [Investment Facilitation Arrangement].

The Prime Minister's answer was because it:

… goes on to say that there will be labour market testing before people are actually employed.

The IFA memorandum of understanding does not go on to say that. It says that when employers on IFA projects enter labour agreements with the government, these agreements may include labour market testing requirements.

The China FTA turns labour market testing on IFA projects into an optional extra rather than a legislated safeguard. It also completely excludes labour market testing for several categories of workers, including contractual service suppliers, installers and servicers. This is set out very clearly in chapter 10 of the FTA, which states:

Neither party shall … require labour market testing …

This side of the House supports a high-quality deal with China. The Prime Minister either does not know what is in his agreement or he is deliberately misleading this House about its contents.

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