John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This afternoon I applaud the necessary reforms to the temporary work visa program that began in April of this year. This is part of the government's overall national economic plan to drive growth and create more and better paid jobs. It's a plan that is getting results, as our economy grew 0.8 per cent in the June quarter. On a yearly average basis, our economy expanded by 1.9 per cent last financial year. That's above our budget forecast and equal with the United Kingdom, the United States and the rest of Europe. The recent national accounts data followed weeks and months of evidence of more jobs, more investment, more wages and more exports. As the Treasurer said in handing down our budget in May of this year, there are better days ahead. This is because there has been a recovery in economic conditions that will drive growth into the future. In regional Australia and in electorates like my own electorate of Groom, there has been and continues to be very significant growth. Australia's agricultural exports are up 18.7 per cent through the year to the June quarter. Chickpeas in particular are doing extremely well in the export market out of Queensland.

Even as the government makes its sensible reforms to the temporary work visa program, it has recognised the need for some industries in the rural sector to have access to temporary workers in times of harvest. The Turnbull government has announced a number of new measures to further support employers and seasonal workers to access the seasonable worker program. Critical safeguards have been built into this program. They include the requirement for employers to fully test the local job market before they can apply to recruit workers. These safeguards are evidence of the tempered manner this government is taking to redress the balance between employer interests and those of domestic workers. The government, on one hand, tightens the rules and regulations that have allowed a pathway to permanent residency in Australia but, on the other, allows industries with genuine need to access skilled workers. This is good policy at work. This is about balance.

The balance that I refer to also includes the responsibility that exists, I believe, for Australians to step up to those job opportunities, because the abolition of the temporary work skilled visa subclass 457 is all about ensuring more jobs for Australian workers. Pat Gleeson, a good friend of mine and general manager of Oakey Beef Exports in the Darling Downs—as well as having responsibility for other meatworks, including that in the member for Dawson's electorate—often expresses concern to me about young Australians not being aware of or not being willing to take up positions in such establishments. These are well-paid jobs, and they were good enough for Pat Gleeson when he started in the meat-processing industry all those years ago. And they were good enough for me, because that's where I started my career as well.

We need to put Australians first in the job market. We are continuing to refine our policy settings to encourage more people into meaningful work. We are ensuring more jobs are available for Australian workers, and that's what these measures are all about. We are encouraging more and more of our young people to look at futures in, for example, the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We are doing this because we are a government that supports work for Australians, jobs for Australians and, of course, a future for Australians. Foreign workers can add value to our nation, but they must supplement, not replace, hardworking Australians, and there must be opportunities for hardworking Australians into the future.

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