Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I know you do not need my apology, because I could see the goodwill with which you took my comment. I in fact saw you laughing. So you have that great Australian trait of being able to laugh at yourself—which is welcomed.

The question that was asked was: are there any mechanisms to ensure that people are working in the areas for which they make application for a skilled temporary migrant visa? I think the fair answer to that is yes. Obviously, the people making the application have to convince the department that it is appropriate. We reject a lot of applications because, for example, the training commitment from a company is not there. In fact, one of your own colleagues—who is not here today—made a request that we place a 457 worker with a company, and we were not able to do so because the company did not have an adequate training record. There are plenty of occasions where we in fact reject applications on that basis. Unfortunately, your colleague did not put it in writing—otherwise, you can be sure, Senator, that you would be reading the correspondence in the paper.

There is obviously the primary requirement that you tell us what you are going to do, and you are expected—just as you are in any other aspect of dealings with government—to live up to the commitments you make by way of application.