John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am aware of the allegations that have been made and, as I indicated yesterday, proceedings have been taken. If there are breaches of the law, they will be dealt with in accordance with the law. But—while I am on my feet—given that this question and a number of questions are about 457 visas, I caused a little bit of research to be done on the subject of 457 visas. As I indicated yesterday, as of January this year the largest single user of 457 visas was the New South Wales Department of Health. Recently the New South Wales health minister issued a statement proudly declaring that almost three-quarters of the 1,000 nurses to join the New South Wales health system as a result of a 2005 overseas recruitment drive would be on 457 visas. The truth is that the eight state and territory Labor governments have facilitated this; they have been up to their armpits in these visas. Since 2002, South Australia has more than quadrupled its state sponsored skilled migration intake, Queensland has more than tripled it, Western Australia has nearly tripled it, and New South Wales and Victoria have almost doubled it. The ACT, Tasmania—

See this speech in context