Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister update the House on the action the government has taken to maximise job opportunities for young Australians, and how is the government ensuring that our immigration program puts hardworking Australian workers first?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Hughes for his question. Since the coalition was elected we have created 500,000 jobs, and we are proud of the fact that we are presiding over an economy where we put Australian workers first. We have looked at the experience of Labor when they were in government, and we know that when many people around the country talk about this Leader of the Opposition they say that he cannot be trusted—there is something about this Leader of the Opposition that is not right; he is just not right, he is not genuine. I will give one example of why that is the case. When the Leader of the Opposition was the employment minister back in the golden years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period, he presided over the 457 program which brought foreign workers into our country to displace some Australian workers, and in that program that was championed by the Labor Party the number of people under the 457 program grew from 68,000 primary visa holders at the end of June 2010 to more than 110,000 people when Labor left office in 2013. We have cleaned up Labor's mess and we have seen a reduction in the number of foreign workers coming into this country because we have put Australian workers first. That is the reality under this government.

Mr Speaker, there are many other examples in the chequered history of the Leader of the Opposition which you could point to that show he is not a genuine person. You could point to many examples in his professional life where he has taken decisions to provide some sort of benefit to the union bosses at the expense of workers. He also did it when he was employment minister in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years—he took decisions to the detriment of workers. There is no question about that. Along with those behind him, he presided over agreements. Imagine going into the food court at any Westfield shopping centre or into a shopping centre where you have a McDonald's, and McDonald's was preferred as an employer under agreements struck by the Labor Party when they were in government and when they were union leaders over the workers and the businesses alongside McDonald's in the food court. The Labor Party had a family-run burger shop paying workers more than what the EBA was negotiated by the union movement and sanctioned by this Leader of the Opposition. That is the sort of shonky behaviour that has filled the CV of this Leader of the Opposition from the time he entered the union movement. No wonder when you go around the country, people question the integrity of this Leader of the Opposition. Look not at what he says, but look at what he does.