Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is a preferred destination for many migrants, either for a temporary stay or on a permanent basis. Australia has many levels of entry to accommodate its needs and the needs of prospective immigrants. Although the decline in local and global economies has slowed demand, at least temporarily, Australia benefits very much from an inflow of skilled migrants. In recent years, temporary visas have been extensively used. It was in August 1996 that the federal government introduced a new temporary entry business visa, allowing employers to sponsor skilled workers on a temporary basis for between three months and four years. The 457 visa, the Temporary Business (Long Stay) visa subclass 457, is the visa most commonly used by employers to sponsor overseas workers on a temporary basis.

The initial decision to introduce a new temporary business visa regime was made in September 1995 by the Keating government, after the findings of the Roach report. The Keating government accepted the report’s key recommendation that the entry of businesspeople to Australia be simplified by replacing the range of temporary classes existing at the time with a class incorporating a more streamlined application process. These changes were formalised by the Howard government with the introduction of the 457 visa. The purpose of the visa is to allow employers to quickly recruit skilled workers to fill vacancies that cannot be filled locally, and the visa is most commonly used by employers to sponsor overseas workers. The number of primary subclass 457 visa holders peaked at the end of February 2009 at 83,130 and declined to 78,060 in May 2009. Employers are required to meet minimum salary requirements to prevent the undercutting of Australian wages and the exploitation of overseas workers. Sponsors are also required to have a satisfactory record of training Australian workers and to indicate how the overseas workers will benefit Australia. I repeat: they are required to indicate how the overseas workers will benefit Australia.

In April this year the government announced changes to the 457 visa program in order to ensure it continues to provide industry with much-needed skills whilst not undermining local training and employment opportunities. These measures were developed through 2008, following the commitment by the government in the 2008 budget to implement a package of longer-term reforms to improve the integrity of the 457 visa scheme and address concerns about its use. The package included responses to the recommendations from the Deegan review and the views of stakeholders on the Skilled Migration Consultative Panel. The 2008 budget also included a number of intermediate measures, including an increase to the minimum salary level for the first time in two years and the passage of legislation to enhance monitoring and sanction powers and funding for increased compliance activity. The Migration Legislation Amendment (Worker Protection) Act, which seeks to improve the integrity of the 457 visa program by strengthening the enforceable sponsorship framework, is scheduled to commence in September this year.

In addition to the 457 and other temporary visa schemes, permanent residence arrangements continue to be a significant part of Australia’s migration program in attracting highly-qualified professional and business people. There is a large body of evidence that skilled migration has a very positive impact on the Australian economy. One of the latest in a long series of reports confirming this view is a recent paper by economics professor Noel Gaston and master’s candidate Melissa Bond, from Bond University in Queensland. They found that an increased flow of skilled migrants boosted local workers’ wages by stimulating demand. It is very evident that workers who are either on a temporary entry visa or permanent migrants are the backbone of many skill groups in Australia. One would ask where Australia would be without the services of professionals from other countries in areas like health, engineering and education. These are people who are in demand all over the world, not just in Australia, in areas including their home countries. These countries are often developing countries.

As outlined above, there are protections in place to ensure that temporary skills and permanent programs do not damage Australia’s jobs or the Australian employment market and that they do benefit Australia’s economy. These programs do remove in-demand service personnel from other countries. There has been some debate about how Australia might recognise this and reciprocate, as it removes workers from their own countries. In fact, Australia does provide some assistance to developing countries in supporting education in their own education system. Australia is doing that through AusAID, helping its partner countries to develop more effective and comprehensive education services. It is indeed a complex equation, because it involves not only increasing the resources to the education system but also improving governance and service delivery. It is obviously beneficial to build internal capacity within countries in our region and those developing countries from which we draw skilled migrants. It is very important for those countries’ development that we support education services, for girls in particular. Girls in developing countries often miss out on education services, and it is important—as we understand very clearly in Australia—that there be education across the board for girls and boys regardless of income levels.

Another important aspect of the aid Australia provides is scholarships. Last week I had a chance to meet politicians and secretariat members from the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, and many of those from the ASEAN countries had studied in Australia. Indeed, one or two were old Colombo Plan students. They all emphasised the importance to them of having had that education in Australia and the importance they saw in enhancing the links between our countries.

Scholarships continue to be a very important aspect of our assistance while education in those ASEAN countries is developing. Fortunately, Australia will double the number of education awards over the next five years in the Asia-Pacific region to 19,000 through three main scholarship programs: Australian Development Scholarships, the Australian Leadership Awards and the Endeavour Awards program. Australian Development Scholarships is a well-established scholarship program for people from developing countries to undertake full-time undergraduate or postgraduate study in Australia. The Australian Leadership Awards is a program to develop leadership and build partnerships and linkages within the Asia-Pacific area and address priority regional issues. So that is important for developing those capabilities for leadership across the entire Asia-Pacific region. There are also the Endeavour postgraduate and postdoctoral awards, which assist in developing academic and technical skills.

Clearly, the scholarship program is an aid program that also benefits Australia while it benefits the countries involved and the region in general. The ASEAN region, from which we draw much of our skilled migration, has been hit hard by the global economic crisis and, as much as it is vitally important for Australia to build our skills base and infrastructure to ensure we emerge strongly from the recessionary environment, it is even more important for this region to do so. Australia should play its part in this for its own long-term interests as well as the obligation I believe we have to reciprocate with regard to the skills we draw from those countries.