Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I refer the minister the answer she gave the Senate yesterday, when she was unable to provide details of two separate allegations of rorted 457 visas at meatworks in South Australia. Now that the minister has had the opportunity to put her pearls on and to obtain advice about these cases, can she update the Senate on the status of these allegations? In particular, can the minister confirm that DIMA advised a union official some two weeks ago that foreign workers at a Murray Bridge meatworks were not engaged in skilled work and were being paid less than they should? If these workers were not engaged in skilled work, isn’t this just confirmation that the visa conditions were not met at the time the visas were issued? Doesn’t this mean that the department has allowed this employer to engage foreign workers in breach of visa conditions at the expense of Australian jobs?