Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. What are the next steps the government is taking to make the 457 visa system fairer and to prevent abuse and exploitation in the workforce?

Mrs Mirabella interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Indi is warned!

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Werriwa for his question and his ongoing interest in ensuring that we do the right thing by workers in this country. The government believes you can have a strong and growing economy but also a fair society. It is for that reason we abolished Work Choices. Work Choices was about taking the low road. It did not encourage productivity and was not about enabling workers to participate in the workplace. That belief is also why we responded the way we did during the global financial crisis to support hundreds of thousands of jobs. That response is one of the reasons we are a growing economy—one of the fastest growing economies in the developed world—with about 900,000 new jobs being created since that time.

Today the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and I announced that the Fair Work Ombudsman will be empowered to investigate employers who sponsor visa holders to ensure they are complying with the law. This is important too. It is important for ensuring that local workers get the first opportunity in the absence of genuine skill shortages in the marketplace, it is important for ensuring that employers who do the right thing are not disadvantaged by rogue employers who do the wrong thing and it is important for 457 visa applicants themselves.

It is absolutely vital that we have the capacity to enforce the provisions which are in place now and the provisions and reforms I announced on 23 February this year. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship currently has 34 inspectors. They will now be combined with the more than 300 inspectors who work for the Fair Work Ombudsman. That will provide us with greater capacity to find breaches in the existing system. That is absolutely critical.

Indeed, we do not want to see so-called human resources managers making pizzas; we do not want to see so-called project managers working as scaffolders on construction sites; we do not want to see an abuse of those people who are applicants or of those employers who do the right thing. Most importantly, we do not want to see those workers who have the skills and deserve the opportunities before anybody else miss out. That is very important indeed. This reform, this announcement, is very important because it will enforce the provisions that this government is going to put in place.

By way of contrast, the opposition have said that they will not support these reforms and that they do not support more oversight over the 457 scheme. Indeed, the opposition leader has suggested that the 457 scheme be the mainstay of immigration. That is not the right approach. We would urge the opposition to support these reforms.