Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In response to those comments, to clarify what our amendment seeks to do, I can give you a very clear example of what it is responding to in relation to these trade agreements. It is within chapter 12 of the Indonesia agreement, the implementation of which we are seeking to facilitate, that it grants to Indonesia 4,000 to 5,000 work permits under what used to be the 457 process. The absence of labour market testing means that these permits do not have to be subject to those tests around whether or not there are existing individuals within the community who are able to do this work. That is exactly why they have been so stringently opposed and concerns with them have been so robustly flagged. It might make some people uncomfortable that that's the case, but that is one of the concerns around just the Indonesia agreement alone. That is the basis on which we have put forward this amendment for the Senate's consideration and commended it to the Senate.