Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, as I answered in response to questions from Senator Hanson-Young and Senator Whish-Wilson—and I believe you were in the chamber for some of that yesterday—because this is a treaty, these are reciprocal arrangements, so they apply equally to Australians working in companies engaged in arrangements with some of our treaty partners. This is not just an issue about workers coming into Australia. It is also important because we cannot request that or expect that of our own workers, for our own companies, if we don't have some reciprocal arrangements.

I do have some further detail for you, Senator Hanson, in relation to your question about what the commitments are. Australia's temporary entry commitments are limited to businesspeople from parties to the TPP-11, and they provide similar access to Australian businesspersons in equivalent categories. So Australia has committed to providing access for TPP-11 businesspersons to stay and work in Australia, but, again, they are quite defined categories. For contractual service suppliers it's one year, with a possibility of extension. For investors and independent executives it's up to two years. For intracorporate transferees, which is a fancy way of saying executives and senior managers, it's an initial four years, with a possibility of extension. For specialists it's a two-year stay, with the possibility of extension; and for installers and servicers it's up to three months. Spouses and dependants are granted entry to accompany executives and contractual service suppliers. So it is very specific, it is very limited and it is focused on business and executives and their spouses. It's not a free-for-all. It is very specific. And, as you can see, there are different time frames for different categories of business visas and engagements.