Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Employment, in writing, on 14 November 2014:

Is the Minister aware of the views of Dr Bob Birrell from Monash University's Centre for Population and Urban Research, as reported by Edmund Tadros in "Accounting bodies do about-face on jobs for foreign students" (Australian Financial Review, 29 October 2014), that the unemployment figures for Melbourne's north are being compounded by the fact that local unemployed people are currently competing with over one million temporary migrants with working rights visas in Australia, for the same occupations.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Employment has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

As previously indicated on several occasions to the Honourable Member, the Government is aware of both the newspaper report and the report from Monash University.

Unlike the former Rudd/​Gillard/​Rudd Governments, of which Mr Thomson was a member, this Government is not in the business of overreacting to media reports. Instead, the Government carefully considers the facts and pursues policies that are in the national interest.