Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. The Prime Minister either misled the parliament or does not understand how contracting works, because what we have seen since this government has repealed the Clean Start guidelines is that the contract cleaners working in the Department of Immigration and Border Protection have received a $2 an hour pay cut. Their wages have been cut because the contract went out for tender, and the cleaning company, to get the contract, tendered on the award, which undercut the Clean Start guidelines and principles. That is the result of what this government did through its red-tape repeal day. Hidden in the pages and pages that it put before this place is a tax on working people.

Another example of what this government did on red-tape repeal day, as recent as last week, is an example around 457 visas. The minister responsible, the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, went out and said to the community that they are going to streamline 457 visas, to make it easier for companies to bring in people on these temporary work visas. What the minister did not say when she was out there was that there would be a budget save of about $30 million in compliance costs through the introduction of flexible streamlining arrangements. What concerns me is that we already know, by media reports, that there is currently exploitation going on within the temporary visa system.

In my own electorate, in Bendigo, there was a young couple that were here on a temporary work visa arrangement and they were not paid wages for 12 months. They took their claim to the Fair Work Ombudsman, who is now investigating this particular case. They are now owed $85,000. What concerns me is that the minister has not come out and said how she is going to stop this from happening. Instead, mixed up in the red-tape repeal day was a suggestion that we are going to make it flexible and easier for this kind of exploitation to occur. This is a very serious issue because people are being ripped off. (Time expired)

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