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

That was an opportunity for the minister to outline what's in the instrument, but again he has failed. Perhaps it's because he's the Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism Affairs and not the minister who will actually be responsible for the instrument. Where is the minister responsible for the instrument, the Minister for Home Affairs? Why isn't he in here defending the legislation? Perhaps because he and the rest of his government don't know what's in the instrument. This is the critical point. We are saying on this side we need to define labour market testing. What the minister is referring to, the increase in 457 visas, is the exact reason why Labor in government introduced labour market testing, which every single person on the government side, when they were in opposition, voted against. We know they don't like labour market testing. We know they don't like telling business that they have to hire Australians first. And why do we know that? Because every single time that this side of the House has put up labour market testing they have voted against it—when we were in government; when we pushed for it to be in the China free trade agreement; and when we pushed for it to be in every free trade agreement. Every time we put it up as an amendment or as a private member's bill, this government votes against it.

The minister also failed to explain how many 457 visa holders we will need to enter this country to raise the $1.2 billion for their training fund. They've got an expectation to raise $1.2 billion in a training fund. How many visa holders will they have to bring in to reach that target? So rather than directly funding skills and training, they're actually saying, 'This is our goal. We're going to have to bring all these extra people in to reach the goal.' It just doesn't make sense.

We are in desperate need of extra training funds in this country, because this government has cut funding. Now they're saying to our TAFEs and to the TAFE sector that the best way to get funding into the TAFE sector is by increasing the number of 457 visas. You couldn't make this stuff up. This is at a time when we don't have labour market testing for a whole range of other visas. We know the stats: over a million people have entered this country on a temporary arrangement and have work rights. The 400 visas, the 462 visas, the 417 visas and international students can all work in this country in industries directly competing for jobs against young Australians or other Australians. I've met nurses and social workers who are here on the backpacker visa. A social worker works in community and child protection for six months and moves on to the next employer. It is ludicrous what is happening in the temporary skilled migration space. Yet what we are not seeing from this government is a genuine commitment. Instead, they are standing here and saying 'Just trust us', when the minister responsible for defining the instrument won't even turn up.

We heard again in question time today, 'We have plans to.' That's not good enough. How are you going to do labour market testing. In this legislation, if it's weak, if it's the skinny instrument, if it doesn't go anywhere near to matching up to what needs to be done to give Australians jobseekers and Australian workers security that the demands that they have will be considered first, it cannot be disallowed by the Senate. So nervous are they that the Senate will reject their version of labour market testing that they won't even allow this place to reject it.

I urge those opposite: do not do what you've always done and push labour market testing to the side. We know we cannot trust companies to employ Australians first, just like we cannot trust companies to give Australians a pay rise just because they're making record profits. This government is delusional when it comes to big business. They seem to believe that big business will hand over money, hand over profits, give it away in high wages. There is no evidence of that. That they will employ Australians just because they should—well, they don't.

We must have strong labour market testing to guarantee every skilled worker, whether they be in mining industry, an engineer, a nurse, or they work in IT or in any number of skilled professions who have been locked out of jobs; whether they be in our maritime industry, another industry where we are rife with 457 visas taking away jobs from local people. What is in your labour market testing? Come clean and tell us what's going on or support Labor's amendments. Finally protect Australian jobs and make sure Australians get access to Australian jobs first.

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