Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask whether the Acting Prime Minister is aware of statements by officials of Perth construction company Hanssen Industries in relation to Australian workers:

The more you pay them the less they work.

And in relation to foreign workers:

We found that by using migrant labour ... they’d just follow it and do it the way we wanted.

I am not saying they are at a lower level of intelligence ... it just seemed that they can do one task and not want to do anything different until they’re told to do something different.

Does the Acting Prime Minister endorse this conduct available under the government’s so-called ‘skilled’ migration program? If not, will he now fix it?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think that Australian workers work very hard, and they work very hard for increased wages under this government, unlike its predecessor. Real wages have increased by 16.7 per cent under this government. If there was ever an experiment in restricting wage increases, it occurred under the Australian Labor Party between 1983 and 1996.

Having said that, our country does operate a skilled immigration program and it always has. It did through the fifties and the sixties. There are a lot of people who are in this parliament today because their parents came out here in the fifties and the sixties as skilled immigrants. Skilled immigrants were welcome in Australia in the fifties and the sixties and they will be welcome now. They will be welcome if they can come to this country and bring their skills with them and contribute to the development of the Australian nation. I do not want anybody to run around here and try to impute, as the shadow minister did, that somehow skilled migrants are not welcome in Australia.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on the question of relevance. This is about temporary work visas. That is what we are talking about here—temporary work visas. What have you got to say about that?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Acting Prime Minister is answering the question. I call the Acting Prime Minister.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am giving my views on skilled migrants and skilled labour. I am asked my views about Australian workers and Australian wages and I will give my views. My views are that what Australians want more than anything else is a job, which they are getting a lot more of today than they were under the Labor Party. What they want is a decent wage, which they are getting. In addition to that, they also welcome the fact that people with skills can come to this country and contribute. Our government has a skilled migration program, which will continue. It has been vastly improved in recent years, ever since the last government was thrown out of office.