Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister recall telling this House, from behind that dispatch box, on 22 June this year:

... if there are adequate numbers of Australians available to fill skilled trades positions, then they should get the jobs ...

Is the Prime Minister aware that up to 50 Australian tradespeople working on site at ABC Tissues were stood down without pay in the week of 18 August but that the foreign workers continued to be paid? Does the Prime Minister now think it is acceptable for local tradespeople to be stood down without pay—

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Cameron Thompson interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Blair is warned!

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

while foreign unskilled workers on 457 visas continue to be paid and to retain job security?

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

I am quite sure that I would have said something like that on 22 June 2006—and, unlike the Leader of the Opposition, I would have consistently said it on 22 June in the nine previous years, because I have always had the view that you only bring people into these situations where there is clearly a shortage of Australian workers. What I find strange is that, every second time somebody from the Labor Party gets up, they start talking about the skills shortage but, when you bring people in to fix it, they say, ‘Oh, that’s bad.’

If there has been any breach by this company, then this company deserves to be punished. But that in no way alters the general proposition that I have maintained. That general proposition is that, where there is a demonstrated shortage of Australian workers, we do need to bring in overseas workers. As I pointed out in my previous answer, that is uniformly the attitude of every state and territory Labor government in this country. It is complete hypocrisy for the Labor Party, on the one hand, at a state level, to bring in foreign workers to fill the gaps and yet, on the other hand, at a federal level, to try to run some kind of scare campaign in relation to the bringing in of foreign workers. If the ABC company has broken the law, it ought to have the book thrown at it. But that does not alter the validity of the current situation.