Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ellison, the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. Is the minister aware that under the 457 visa program employers are not under any obligation to offer positions to Australian workers before employing a foreign worker? Doesn’t this mean that employers can look overseas for cheap temporary workers to fill any of the hundreds of occupations that the government classifies as skilled, even when there are Australians available to do the job? Doesn’t this show that the 457 visa scheme is no longer purely about filling skills shortages but also about opening up a source of cheap labour? Can the minister now indicate if the government will act on the Joint Standing Committee on Migration’s recommendation and trial labour market testing to stop the 457 visa scheme from being used as a backdoor way of cutting Australian wages and conditions?