Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

Winston Churchill said that there's nothing more important in the education of a politician than fighting elections. Well, I would say that there's nothing more important for a conservative or Liberal-Nationals minister than listening to Labor speakers talk about labour market testing. It's really important.

Mr Tudge interjecting—

It's really important for the education of the minister at the table. I notice he's only defended his position by the talking points. He hasn't really told us anything about the instrument—no parameters about what the government will do, when they'll do it and what particulars they'll put in the instrument or not.

So, what are the consequences of the vote we're about to undertake? If Labor are successful and if the government has the road-to-Damascus conversion experience we've talked about and, for the first time in decades, actually votes for labour market testing tonight, we'll have it in the bill—proper labour market testing, picking up what Labor put in our bill on putting Australians workers first that the Leader of the Opposition introduced in 2016. If we do that, that's what will happen: proper labour market testing. Then, of course, the provision in relation to the minister's discretion in relation to a legislative instrument becomes completely redundant.

If the minister were fair dinkum when he announced his changes back in April last year, he would, at some stage, have undertaken consultation with, for instance, the Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration—and we would have had evidence before the House today. I have not heard words to that effect from those opposite or from the minister in any contribution that he's made tonight or last week. There's no evidence at all that the government has consulted the body that's been established to advise in relation to skilled migration. Indeed, so lacking was the consultation in relation to this that the Labor candidate for Batman—a very senior person in the ACTU—resigned from the council, because the government was not consulting whatsoever in relation to these changes.

We're not opposed in principle to charging employers a levy for temporary and permanent skilled visas; we think that that is reasonable in the circumstances. But we strongly oppose the lack of a guarantee for stable funding for the Skilling Australians Fund that this government's creating. What the government hasn't picked up—and the member for Bendigo was right—is how many 457 visas, and how many under the temporary and permanent skilled visa that they're going to bring in in March this year, are going to come in? How many people are going to be required to raise $1.2 billion? The minister at the table, Mr Tudge, has been bragging and boasting tonight about a reduction in 457 visas, but if that keeps going there could be a huge shortfall, and we know that he's put in $261 million more in relation to it. We don't even have the responsible minister, the member for Dickson, here to justify it. He has not defended these issues in any way at all. We don't even know whether the minister at the table actually has carriage of this in his charter. I'd be surprised—he's dealing with multiculturalism and citizenship—if he actually has skilled migration and this visa as well. I'd be very surprised if this is part of his portfolio.

What we're trying to do tonight is something that the coalition has refused to do. I can remember the very last thing that the member for Gorton had to do when we were trying to bring in proper labour market testing under the Rudd government. We had to go to the crossbench, because those opposite—in opposition—opposed us every step of the way. They claimed, in relation to this, that we had undertaken—there were some terrible things said about our motivations in relation to this issue, when all that we were trying to do was support local jobs and put local workers first. The now Treasurer—then spokesperson for immigration—opposed the member for Gorton, the responsible minister, uphill and down dale. Tonight, the government has a chance. Tonight, we'd like to see the Liberal and National parties, for the first time in decades, actually vote for labour market testing. It would be good if they could and would. They should have a look at the recommendations that the Labor senators put in the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee inquiry report which they handed down on Friday. But they haven't responded to that and none of the contributions we've heard from those opposite—mind you, there's only one minister who's talking in this consideration detail—have talked about the report. They've completely ignored it, which gives us absolutely no confidence in the mythical legislative instrument that the responsible minister claims he's going to enact.

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