Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to sum up the debate and, in doing so, I thank all the speakers from both sides of the chamber for their contributions to the debate on these two bills, which we are debating concurrently: the Migration Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2017, as well as the Migration (Skilling Australians Fund) Charges Bill 2017.

As members are aware, these two bills collectively introduce a training contribution charge, known as the SAF levy, which is a critical element of the reforms to sponsored skill migration in this country to ensure Australian workers are given first priority for jobs. The revenue collected, in essence from the sponsoring business of the short-term skilled visas, will be going into a new fund called the Skilling Australians Fund. The idea behind collecting this revenue and putting it into this fund is that that training fund will then be used to go towards precisely the training in the areas where we need further skills so that, in the future, we hope, businesses will no longer need to bring in as many foreign workers to fill the gaps that exist presently. We estimate that about $1.2 billion will be raised in this fund, and that will support an estimated 300,000 apprenticeships and traineeships over the forward estimates. So it's a very significant amount of money which we forecast will be raised and a very significant contribution to the upskilling of Australians in order to ensure that they can fill the jobs of the future.

The bill also amends the act so that the minister may determine the manner in which labour market testing must be conducted. This enhanced labour market testing will ensure employers are first providing Australians with the opportunity of a job before they seek to bring in workers from overseas. The bill also amends the act to formalise the current practices of accepting nominations for temporary overseas skilled workers by businesses that have applied to be a sponsor or entered into negotiations for a labour agreement rather than awaiting the outcome of that process.

The bills complement the other 457 visa changes we are making—very significant changes, which we announced last April. The overall objective of these changes is to ensure that, as much as humanly possible, Australian workers get the first opportunity to get Australian jobs. Of course, there will be cases where there are no Australian workers able to do those jobs, so we still need a system for businesses to be able to fill those particular positions by bringing some skilled people into the country on a short-term basis.

We were concerned previously that there were problems in the 457 visa category. We have addressed those problems by making significant changes. We have had wave 1 of the reforms already, which, for example, involved reducing the number of occupations on the skills shortages list from 651 down to 461. We have introduced two lists: one for very short term skills shortages, for two years, and the other for medium and longer term skills shortages. We have already introduced new integrity measures, and next month, from 1 March, we'll be introducing the next wave of reforms in relation to the 457 visa process. We are doing so in order to ensure that Australians have the best chance of getting those Australian jobs.

I just want to reflect on a couple of the points the shadow minister and other Labor members have raised, including reflecting on the amendment they're foreshadowing. In essence, they are saying—and it is even in the amendment they have foreshadowed—that the government has failed to protect local jobs. I find this astounding. If they are criticising us for failing to protect Australian jobs, clearly the shadow minister is not up to date on what is going on in the Australian economy today. For the benefit of members opposite I'd just like to go through a few key facts that show how well we are doing in ensuring that Australians are getting jobs. The first point is that in the last 12 months alone 400,000 jobs have been created in the economy, three-quarters of which are full-time jobs. That is a record for the number of jobs ever created in this country—400,000 jobs were created in this country.

The second point I would make relates to this, and it was in part due to the good work of Minister Porter, who is sitting beside me in the chamber. It is that the number of people on unemployment benefits or on working-age welfare payments is at its lowest level in 25 years. The number of people on working-age payments has dropped by 140,000 while we've been in government, whereas it actually went up by 250,000 when Labor was in government.

I have talked about the new jobs created and I have just mentioned that, as a process of that, we have the smallest proportion of people on welfare we've had for 25 years. The third element of that, which goes directly to the bill we are discussing today, is that we've done this at the same time that the number of people coming out on 457 visas has actually dropped significantly. So it's quite an incredible trifecta that we can have more jobs being created, fewer people on welfare and fewer overseas workers coming in and being needed to fill the gaps. That's a good outcome overall for Australian workers.

The contrast is stark when we compare it with what occurred under the previous government, where the welfare queues went up, where job creation was lower and where we had a record number of people coming in on 457 visas. While the welfare queues were going up, they were bringing in a record number of people on 457 visas. That's why we are so strongly saying that the amendment they're proposing is so fundamentally flawed and so fundamentally wrong.

This government has done very, very well at job creation. We've still got more work to do. We've done very well at reducing the number of people on welfare—we still have more work to do—and we've done well at ensuring that Australians get the first opportunity for those jobs before we need to introduce people from overseas to fill the gaps.

I once again say thank you for the contributions of people to this House. I hope the members opposite will reflect on the trifecta which I've just outlined in terms of job creation, fewer people on welfare and fewer people from overseas coming into this country. It is something that we can all be justifiably proud of because it means that more Australians are getting good jobs in this country and they are more secure jobs.

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