Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Can I take this opportunity to back the member for Kennedy on a couple of really important points he made. One was this practice with foreign workers who appear to be being paid Australian wages but are not. I have heard stories in Hobart from a number of sources that this is exactly what happens. A foreign worker on some sort of temporary work visa will get the Australian wage, but when he walks out the door he's expected to hand a portion of it back to his employer. The result being that those people are being paid substantially less than their Australian counterparts. That's why these foreign workers are so desirable in Australia, that's why so many of them are being brought in—because they get paid less than their Australian counterparts. That has a number of effects. It means that there are Australian workers who are not being paid instead and it means that those Australian workers who are being employed are suffering downward pressure on their wages and conditions.

The government can't claim that this isn't happening. For years I have been hearing stories around Hobart. We've been very lucky to have a commercial construction boom in recent years, but at just about every big construction site in Hobart you will see foreign workers. You will see foreign plasterers, foreign tilers and foreign glaziers. You can't tell me that we don’t have plasterers and tilers in Australia who aren't looking for work. Of course we do. Sure, they may be in short supply in Hobart, because we've got a construction boom in Hobart, but you can't tell me that there aren't tilers and plasterers, among other trades, in Melbourne, in Sydney and, in particular, in regional mainland cities, who aren't looking for work. Of course, they are out there looking for work.

The system is not working, and the simple and undeniable fact is that these free trade agreements are costing Australian jobs and creating downward pressure on wages and conditions for Australian workers. This nonsense from the government and, I suspect, from the opposition—in fact, I know that it is from the opposition, because during the 43rd Parliament there was a real surge in the number of foreign workers coming into this country—that these foreign workers are not costing Australian jobs and that these foreign workers are being paid Australian wages and enjoying Australian conditions is just not true. The government and the opposition know that. Either they know it and they are wilfully ignorant or they are clueless. If people like me walking the streets and talking to construction workers in Hobart can see it, surely the government and the opposition should be able to see. The member for Kennedy—way up there in North Queensland—is aware of it. So we can only assume that the government and the opposition are either wilfully ignorant or are well aware of it and they are misleading this place.

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