Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

We were greeted today with yet another example of how this government says one thing and does another. This was the result of a question Senator Cameron asked Senator Cash about the contradictions in her statements about the approach this government was taking to 457 visas and the statements that she had made as the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. She actually moved an instrument to remove labour market testing with regard to 457 visas as a result of four free trade agreements.

So we have a situation. We have the Prime Minister today making some statements in response to some amendments that were moved last night in the Senate with regard to 457 visas. The Prime Minister has made, I think, two important contributions today. The first was that he has failed to rule out that Senator Brandis will be appointed overseas for a diplomatic post. The urgers, the cheer squads and the apologists within the right-wing press might in fact applaud that move. What they will not applaud is the Prime Minister's second statement today, which was to support a Labor Party amendment which was carried in the Senate last night with regard to 457 visas. The amendment that was moved by Senator Cameron made the observation, in terms of a proposition with regard to the Building Code, that a person should not be employed in undertaking building work unless:

(a) the position is first advertised in Australia; and

(b) the advertising was targeted in such a way that a significant proportion of suitably qualified and experienced Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents (within the meaning of the Migration Act 1958) would be likely to be informed about the position; and

(c) any skills or experience requirements set out in the advertising were appropriate to the position; and

(d) the employer demonstrates that no Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident is suitable for the job.

This is an extraordinary, sweeping amendment which the Senate has agreed to and which the government has accepted.

Of course, that is part of a pattern that has been established in recent times with this government. It is prepared to maintain a position with regard to its economic program, but is now prepared to entirely abandon that if it thinks it can get a vote through the Senate on a bill which essentially been so hollowed out that it bears no real resemblance to the position of the ABCC bill that has been put to this parliament over the last three years. We now have a situation where we essentially have a bill that has the same title but a very different proposition. I think that this is particularly the case with regard to what we see with the procurement question. Nearly $60 billion worth of government procurement right across the whole of government is now being fundamentally rewritten as a result of the interventions in this Senate on this particular matter that I think are very worthwhile.

What has surprised me is that the extreme right-wing elements in the Liberal Party clearly do not understand what they have been drawn into. The cheer squad from the IPA has not got a clue what the implications of these measures are. Of course, the right-wing Murdoch press will froth at the mouth when they understand the full scope of the changes. It is all in the interests of getting a vote in this chamber to smash building workers. This is the Faustian pact which, very disappointingly, from my point of view, has been accepted. Their people are prepared to trade off important questions with regard to manufacturing with the human rights and civil rights of building workers. That is a disappointment to me even if the policy objectives with regard to that I would fully support. It might shock some people on the other side of the chamber that a person like me would support that, but it goes to tell them how far they have gone in their desperate measures to secure a majority here.

So we have a situation now with regard to 457 visas and procurement that this government has essentially accepted a Labor Party agenda in a desperate bid to secure a majority across these benches so they can find the necessary numbers to belt up building workers. There is a tragedy in the fact that the government feels there is some political advantage in undermining the working conditions of building workers, but it is an irony that a government so conservative and so right wing has been obliged to accept such a far-reaching interventionist agenda in a desperate bid to secure its program. (Time expired)