Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Professor Carr points out in his statement that in the China FTA a memorandum of understanding on investment facilitation agreement states that 'the Australian government require that companies prove they have tried to find workers locally before seeking to bring any from China'. He says that 'if the China FTA is ratified any temporary workers that come to Australia will operate under the existing 457 visa regime'. That is the one the union's use. So the unions want to use it but they want to stop anyone else from using it. He went on to say that 'under the China free trade agreement the skill level will be assessed in exactly the same way as those from 150 other countries around the world'. Okay, what is the criticism of the Labor Party about the China free trade agreement? Their criticism is that it was not theirs. So now they are opposing the creation of thousands of jobs. Shame, Labor, shame! (Time expired)

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