Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to make some comments tonight about the government’s use of 457 visas, and I want to make it clear from the outset that Labor not only supports the 457 visa class as an instrument to fill skills gaps but also supports companies and organisations that use 457 visas to fill legitimate skills shortages and gaps. It also needs to be noted that we would not need 457 visas beyond the normal course of business if the Howard government had actually been dealing with the skills crisis from day one. For 10 years we have had the skills crisis, and this government has refused to acknowledge it or to do anything about it. The Labor Party has been beating a drum—it has been almost a lone voice on this issue for many years in this place—warning the government of the dire consequences of not dealing with the skills crisis and the use of 457 visas.

The fact is that 457 visas have a very useful purpose if they are used for the right reasons. Unfortunately, the government has moved over recent years, in conjunction with its extreme industrial relations changes, to also change the way foreign workers can be employed and used to fill so-called skilled jobs. The rules that cover this vital area of employment have been so relaxed of recent times that there are literally no checks and balances on the use of 457 visas and on how they can be exploited by unscrupulous employers. This has led to massive abuse and exploitation of not only foreign workers but also Australian workers. 457 visas, under this government, have become an instrument for unscrupulous employers to drive down wages and to reduce working conditions of both foreign and Australian workers.

Under this government 457 visas are synonymous with exploitation and abuse. They have driven down wages, they are reducing conditions and they are replacing existing Australian workers with foreign workers, often with less or no skills at all. The impact this is having on Australian workers and Australian companies is profound. Those Australians who find themselves refused a job or replaced by a foreign worker are devastated and often left without any recourse because of this government’s coupling of these visas with the extreme industrial relations legislation changes that it has made.

For those Australian companies that want do the right thing—that want to continue down the high-skill path, the high-productivity path, the road along which they negotiate in good faith with their unions and their workers in enterprise bargaining and collective bargaining—those organisations and those workers find themselves in an unenviable position of having their competitors drive down wages through the use of 457 visas. This is a disgrace and something this government should deal with, address and do something about. This means that good companies that want to do the right thing are being left with very few options. That saddens me.

I have a number of companies in my electorate who have made it very clear to me that they are being left with few options. They want to continue down the high-wage, high-skill road and the path of high productivity but they are being driven literally out of business by unscrupulous employers in the same industries using uncompetitive tactics such as 457 visas to drive down wages and conditions.

It may be okay for the government to talk about the need for the 457 visa class. We agree there is a need; there is no doubt. This government created the problem and then tried to fill it in a short-term way through the use of 457 visas. What does it do in its response to deal with this issue? Nothing. It just blames the states. It blames the states for everything it does. But the Commonwealth cannot extricate itself out of its role in 457 visas in the way that it has made it so easy for them to be abused and to exploit workers, be they foreign or Australian. It is certainly the case that these visas are not being used for what they were intended to be, and that is to fill skilled jobs that cannot be filled by an Australian worker.

The perfect example of this government is the ill thought out promise that it made in terms of Australian technical colleges that will not even deliver their first graduate for many years to come and will not even make a small dent in the skills gap we have in this country. What this government should be focused on is training young Australians today, training them now and dealing with the long-term issue of the skills crisis in this country. This government should be condemned not only for the way it has used its extreme industrial relations legislation to drive down wages and conditions but also for the way it has coupled that legislation to this visa class of 457s and exploiting Australian— (Time expired)