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

I think it is important at this moment in time in this country that I put on record the concerns that I have with the China free trade agreement that this government has negotiated. It is unlike any other free trade agreement that this country has entered into in the past, and I would just like to highlight a number of concerns that I have. They relate to jobs in this country.

First of all, I am concerned about the concessional 457 visa extension to semiskilled trades and vocations, the first under any free trade agreement. I am also concerned about labour market testing, which has been abandoned in this agreement. I am concerned that the mandatory skills assessment for safety has been removed in this agreement, and I am also concerned that there is an unreciprocated, generous holiday visa offering to 5,000 young Chinese—the backpacker visas that we hear about regularly in our media.

In more detail on the grievance that I have with this particular agreement, let's start with the first point I raised. The China free trade agreement includes 457 visas for semiskilled workers—that is, the sub-trade level—in the infrastructure facilitation arrangements of the China free trade agreement labour mobility package. Australia has never before committed to 457 visas for semiskilled workers like contractors, scaffolders, truck drivers or even office workers. In this FTA, this government will allow people to be brought in in those visa categories. Under this agreement, semiskilled Chinese workers will have the opportunity to come here and work in this country without there even being labour market testing to see if there is anybody locally who has those skills available and can apply for the job. This is a further problem that I have with the China free trade agreement.

The China free trade agreement has provided unprecedented provisions granting Chinese citizens new rights that other people on a 457 visa do not have. In this agreement, for the first time, a company applying for a 457 visa for a Chinese worker coming into this country does not have to have labour market testing, meaning it does not have to advertise locally to see if there is a local person available to do the job. This agreement says that, for somebody working in an office in my area of Bendigo, a company can go straight to a Chinese 457 worker before even advertising locally.

This is what has got people concerned in electorates around the country, particularly regional electorates. It is the fact that people can be brought here on a 457 visa not just in skilled but in semiskilled professions and now without labour market testing. This agreement is bringing forward changes that we have not seen in any other free trade agreement struck before by this government or this Commonwealth. In previous free trade agreements, this international obligation was restricted and limited to a defined category of FTAs. It did not extend to skilled workers entering the standard 457 visa program. This is another problem with this agreement. For the first time, it specifically references the 457 visa program.

Another problem with this agreement is the removal of the mandatory skills assessment for safety. This will not only put local jobs at risk but put Australian standards for safety at risk. A side letter to the China free trade agreement says that 'an integral part of the agreement' removes the mandatory 457 skills assessment for Chinese citizens in 10 skilled trades and commits Australia to removing these assessments for all other skilled trades listed within two to five years. So in 10 skilled trades, like our electricians, our plumbers and our diesel mechanics, the safety standards will go automatically on ratification of this agreement, and then for all other trades listed they will go within two to five years. If you are an electrician or other skilled tradesperson in this community, no wonder you are concerned about this agreement being ratified. The government has just sent the strongest signal possible that somebody who has been trained and has qualifications in another country can come into this country and work without meeting the same obligations or having the same certificates and qualifications that they do here. It is also alarming for consumers to think that you could call an electrician to come to your house and not know whether they have Australian qualifications and safety standards or those of another country.

The Abbott government has not produced a shred of evidence to justify revising this position and has probably caved to China's demands for this. Let's just be frank about it: China has been very good at negotiating a very good deal for it and its citizens. This government has failed. They have failed to negotiate a decent agreement for Australians and Australian jobs. The China free trade agreement, as I have mentioned, also includes up to 5,000, 462 visas, for young Chinese to come and live and work in Australia each year. We have not received the same reciprocal rights in cases where there are young Australians who want to go and work in China; we have not received the same opportunity for our citizens. Yet what we have seen in this agreement is: 5,000 young Chinese citizens are to have the opportunity to come and work here, in this country. It was said at a National Farmers Federation forum just last week that these people will come here to pick fruit and other produce. I have no doubt, though, that these people will also be applying for jobs—jobs in regional areas, such as in food processing and in meat works. This is already occurring in my electorate.

Let us just be clear about the facts and about what is going on in terms of jobs in this country and why it is the wrong time to be striking this agreement. Every day, jobs are disappearing. Unemployment remains high and is set to become worse. Youth unemployment in this country is at 13.5 per cent and as high as 20 per cent in some regional areas—including in my own electorate of Bendigo, where it is up to 17 per cent. There are more than 700,000 Australians out of work, and there are now 1.8 million temporary work visa holders already in this country. Before the China free trade agreement has come in, we already have 1.8 million people in this country on temporary work visas.

The impact has been stark. In my own area, as I have mentioned, we have a company called KR Castlemaine, which makes bacon and smallgoods. They are quite open about the fact that they use overseas temporary workers. At the moment they are young Taiwanese, but under this agreement they could be young Chinese. They are quite open about the fact that because they work for a subcontractor they are paid the award rate, which is $4 an hour less than Australian workers on the collective agreement would be paid. Companies are not hiding the fact that they will be able to use subcontractors, who engage these temporary workers, to pay these guest workers less than Australian workers.

This is the wrong time to be striking such a free trade agreement. We have high unemployment and it is only increasing. We have a youth jobs crisis, and this government has no plan; instead, they are very quick to go to other countries and invite those countries' young workers to come here. They are deliberately pitting them against young Australian workers.

We are not ready for free trade—and particularly not for this agreement. Day after day there are media reports about the exploitation being experienced by these guest workers. The Fair Work Ombudsman has released several reports into the problems with the 457 visa program. A recent report found that one in five people that they audited had been underpaid or were not being paid in the job that they were employed to come here for. Yet we have not seen an attempt from this government to clean up the problems in the temporary work visas space. Instead, they have dumped this agreement on Australians and said, 'It is a good deal.' It is far from a good deal. The government is not ready to bring in an agreement like this. There are not the proper safeguards in place to protect Australian jobs. Furthermore, there are not the proper safeguards to protect the guest workers who they hoped to bring here on these visas.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 18:44