Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2017. We heard today in question time from the minister that there's nothing to see, that this government is getting on with the job with labour market testing. It was an opportunity for the minister to outline what is in the instrument. It was a chance, here in our question time, to answer some of the questions that people on this side have raised. But, no—it is still, again, lots of spin but no detail. We still have no detail from this government and this minister of what they will do in regard to labour market testing. They say it will be mandatory. But what is it? Again, they could have done some homework over the weekend. We raised these issues last week. We've raised them every time this bill has been before us. What is this government's commitment to labour market testing? Genuine labour market testing, in the amendments that we have before us, is the only way that we will know and Australian workers will know that local jobs will be for locals first—that Australians with the skills in an area will be offered a job first.

We heard from the member for Herbert, who actually stood up and said loudly and clearly that in her area there is higher unemployment than there is in other areas of Australia. She is right. There is a problem in Townsville in areas like hospitality, where they would much rather the big hotel chains bring in 457 visas than offer local jobs first. There is a network that is working between the hotel chains, between their training providers. They recruit international students over here. Once they've finished as international students, they sign them up on 457 visas so that they can work in the hotel industry. The two years experience they got was as an international student. It is part of the same organisation, locking local young people with the skills out of having those jobs.

Somebody just mentioned Adani in the mining sector. That's fewer than 1,000 jobs. What about the jobs we already have in the mining sector? What about guaranteeing that those jobs will be for local people? The minister also said that it stopped at about 70,000. What he doesn't recognise is the mining boom we had back in 2011-12. He doesn't actually acknowledge that there's also been gross exploitation of people who've been here on 457 visas. Perhaps the fact that we have trashed our reputation because of our treatment of temporary workers in this country is causing fewer and fewer of them to apply to come here. We talk about countries like the Philippines, who now have black bans and have said, 'Don't work in Australia in construction, because you're likely to be exploited by Australian construction companies.' The exploitation of temporary workers has also not been addressed by this government.

Another thing that has also seen a drop in 457 visas, which this government will not acknowledge, is how many unions have actually put in their collective agreements a limited use of 457 visas and conditions that they must recruit locally first. Unions are doing the labour market testing for the government because it's failed. The meatworks industry is another one. This government has failed to match unemployed Australian meat workers with the jobs that exist in this country. It should. That is why this government should show us what's in the instrument.

Tell us how you're going to do labour market testing. Young Australians want to know how this government will guarantee young Australians for Australian jobs first. They should show us the instrument before expecting us to blindly support them in this bill. They should support Labor's amendments because they've failed to come up with their own. They keep talking about young Australians wanting jobs. They keep talking about how they're going to help secure well-paying jobs. Well, how? How are you going to do that? Get beyond the rhetoric and actually put something concrete in front of us. It doesn't matter whether it's the meat industry, the hospitality industry, the mining industry or the construction industry. These are all still industries on the skills shortage list; yet there are young people wanting those jobs. They boast about the fact that they've taken goat herders and goat farmers off the list. That's not where we have a skills shortage in this country, and they're not the industries that people want to work in in this country. We're not about to have an explosion in goat farming in this country. Where we do have work is in the mining industry, the hospitality industry, the meat industry and the construction industry. They're the secure jobs that Australians want. And only with genuine labour-market testing can we guarantee that they get the first opportunity to work in these industries. I urge those opposite to support the Labor amendments that are before us in this House.

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