Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. Will the minister update the House about the government's reforms to the 457 visa program? Why are these reforms so important? What other approaches are there to regulating the 457 program?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question and his interest in 457 visas. The government supports the current arrangements where we have two-thirds of the permanent stream used for skilled migrants. That is a good thing and should continue. We support limited work rights for students and holiday makers and we support the legitimate use of 457s where there is a genuine skills shortage. However, there has been advice provided to me, as it was to my predecessor, that there are problems with the 457 scheme.

The first concern is the large gap between the 457 growth rate and the total employment growth rate. This is illustrated by a 68 per cent increase in 457s for workers in the information, communications and technology sector between 2008-09 and 2011-12. At the same time as this very significant rise in the applications that were granted we have seen nominal wage rates in these positions fall by five per cent for information professions and 12 per cent in technical professions. This is the nominal fall in the rate, so the real wage rate fall is even more dramatic than that.

The positions for those 457 applicants now have lower wage rates than jobs that are currently filled by the permanent workforce in that sector. This is of deep concern to the government and it should be a concern for those opposite. That is why we need these reforms. We need to ensure that employers demonstrate a genuine need for 457 applicants. We need to ensure we demonstrate that they sought to employ local workers. We need to ensure that we show a genuine commitment to training local workers. For that reason, we need these reforms.

The opposition leader has said that he opposes these reforms. In fact, he said that he wants the 457 scheme to be the mainstay of immigration. The member for Cook, in a speech to the AMMA conference last August, said he wanted to remove the blockages and restore the access to 457s—that is, bring it back to the days of the Howard government. He went on further to say:

While this process works for those who can sponsor, I am concerned there is no real pathway for skilled migrants to come independently to Australia on a temporary labour visa, seek employment on arrival …

That is what he wants to do—radically depart from the current 457 scheme. That will have a fundamental adverse impact on employment conditions in this country. (Time expired)

Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. I further ask: what do the government's changes mean for those who are out of work in my electorate?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question. It does worry me that the former Premier of Victoria wrote to my predecessor, Minister Bowen, to seek changes to the guidelines of regional migration agreements so that Geelong can have an RMA applied to it, even though the unemployment figure in Geelong is higher than the national average. That is of deep concern to me. That is combined with the lethal cocktail of state Liberal governments cutting TAFE places across the state. What you have here is a situation where TAFE places are being reduced, young workers are not getting sufficiently trained and, at the same time, Liberal state governments are seeking to broaden the regional migration agreement guidelines in order to ensure that those local workers will miss out on getting those places. That is not the basis upon which the 457 scheme was to be implemented in this country. That is why we need these reforms. I thank the member for his concern—and I also thank the member for Corio, Richard Marles, for his concern—that workers in that area and in other areas across Australia have the opportunities first and that we use 457s only where there are genuine skills shortages.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind the Prime Minister of her statement in 2011 that, 'We've got the visa settings right, particularly with short-term 457 visas.' Can the Prime Minister please explain, given that since that statement over 200,000 such visas have been granted by her government on her watch, what has occurred to turn her support for skilled migration, which built this country, into a belief that it is now out of control?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the member's question: when we first were elected to government, we inherited from the former government a 457 visa program that was out of control—out of control. And the Leader of the Opposition has, as his policy, endorsed that same out-of-control approach for the future.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume her seat. The member for Cook on a point of order.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister made that statement on 27 April 2011, so she might want to reference from that point in time.

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cook will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has the call.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! I am on my feet.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

The individual will leave the chamber. The Prime Minister has the call. This is question time; it is not a football match. The Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was asked about 457 visas and I was starting by making the point that we inherited a system from those opposite that was out of control. Of course, a key difference between our policies and plans for the nation’s future and the Leader of the Opposition’s policies and plans is that we believe Australians should go first and we want to ensure, at every stage, that the visa system works to put Australians first. The Leader of the Opposition has a different approach and wants to make 457 visas a mainstay of the immigration system. So there is a clear policy difference and people can judge.

In terms of the data that has concerned me about 457 visa holders, 457 visa holders currently are at more than 100,000. This represents a 21.5 per cent increase compared to February in 2012. Having cracked down on this system once, those kinds of statistics do concern me and I believe it is time to crack down on this system again.

As the minister for immigration has also made clear, I am concerned about the double whammy which comes when you have state Liberal governments which are cutting back access to training, undercutting our apprenticeship system, slamming the door in the face of young Australians who would seek to get skills, and then making representations to the federal government: 'Don't worry about those training places; don't worry about those apprenticeships for young Australians; don't worry about that access to opportunity. Could you assist us by expanding the short-term visa program for part of the state?' Well, no, that is not good enough, and it will never be good enough for training cutbacks to be used as a justification for then bringing in more people from overseas.

We should always make sure that we are putting Australians first through a world-class training system. We should always make sure we are putting Australians first in access to jobs and opportunity. That is what guides this government in our policies and it always will.