Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Wong for that question. I am not sure I have all the detail that Senator Wong would require for an answer to that question. But let me say that, in relation to the safeguards in ChAFTA, to be approved for a project agreement a company must meet a number of requirements which are outlined in a set of publicly available guidelines. Contrary to what many commentators have said it is not simply the case that Chinese companies are able to bring in their own workforce without checks and balances. The Project Agreement Program allows infrastructure or resource development projects experiencing genuine skills or labour shortages access to temporary skilled and specialised semiskilled temporary overseas workers through the subclass 457 visa. There are a number of other points but if I do not have the correct information I will take it on notice and provide further information to the senator.