Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak to the House about the growing problem with temporary work visas in this country, specifically in relation to the 417 visa, also known as the backpacker visa. In my electorate we have quite a lot of food processing and we still have quite a number of agricultural farms in operation. There have been numerous complaints to my office and through the local media of exploitation of some workers on these visas. Further there have been complaints from locals saying that they are missing out on jobs, that they have applied to these companies for work and they believe that they are not being employed at the expense of those on the 417 visas.

Everyone acknowledges that our migration system is complex. Everyone acknowledges that our fair work and industrial relations systems are complex. But it is compounded when the two very separate areas collide, which is what is going on at the moment with the temporary work visa system. One particular case I wish to highlight in my electorate is with KR Castlemaine. They are known to all of us as Don's smallgoods and bacon. We have probably all got some of their products in our fridges. We probably all enjoyed their hams over Christmas. But what happened before Christmas in their factories caught most locals off guard.

It is quite common in Castlemaine to pick up extra work at 'the baco' before Christmas. Lots of people take on the extra work whether they be university students returning home or mums and dads wanting a bit of extra money for the Christmas period. But this year a number of them missed out on that casual work. The company revealed to the local media that they had engaged a migration agency to supply 417 visa workers to the site. What we then discovered was that these workers were being paid the award, making them cheaper than the workers who usually get this Christmas work. I should note that KR Castlemaine is one of the biggest employers. They do employ 1,200 people. But it was still 100 jobs that people were concerned were not going to local people but were instead going to temporary workers under the 417 visa system.

There is a simple fundamental unfairness if local workers miss out on jobs to overseas temporary workers who are here because they are cheaper. We are in a process with the company to compile a list of local workers who are willing to put their hand up. This is not an isolated case unfortunately. This is quite common in the meatworks industry. There are stories that some meatworks have up to 70 per cent of their workers here on this visa scheme. I asked the Prime Minister, in the great example he used today in question time about the new meatworks that have opened in Darwin, is it one of the workplaces where 70 per cent of the work is being performed by people currently here in this country on 417 visas? Within that system itself there have been multiple media reports recently about the breaches occurring and about people being exploited under that system. Thousands of workers are being underpaid wages or denied entitlements by their Australian employers.

This week, the office of the Fair Work Ombudsman revealed it has recovered more than $20 million in the last year alone from bosses who had not paid their workers properly. Despite this good news that the Fair Work Ombudsman is recovering money, there is increasing concern about the rising number of complaints from overseas workers being denied their entitlements and that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It calls into question the whole integrity of the system if so many people who are being exploited are coming forward to complain.

The industries that were highlighted in this particular report were hospitality and construction. In hospitality, a number of workers coming forward are British or Irish people who have a basic understanding of their rights. My concern is for the people who are here from non-English-speaking backgrounds, who may not understand our work rights. I call on the government to investigate this area and to set up an inquiry into the 417 visa system.