Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am concerned about the government's demonising of workers who are in Australia under the 457 visa scheme. Indeed, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship claimed that there were 10,000 rorts under the 457 visa scheme, which is an unsubstantiated claim. Throughout the Parkes electorate the people on 457s are doing valuable work, whether it is in, for example, engineering, auto electrics, health care or aged care. Indeed, one of the employers using 457 visas in western New South Wales is the department of health.

One of the problems with the 457s, however, is that, with the change to the classifications of occupations the year before last, it is very difficult for farm workers to come in under a 457 visa with the overseer category discontinued. It is very difficult for people to come in under that scheme. As a result, much of the work is being done by people out here on the 417s—the backpackers.

As we speak tonight, there would be hundreds of young people from all around the world planting wheat, chickpeas and barley on farms right across my electorate. What we need to do, I believe, is to put some flexibility into the system. This system was meant to be a cultural exchange, where visitors to this country could experience part of Australian culture, work for a short time and move on. What is happening is that there is a percentage—not a great percentage, but a percentage—of these people who find that they actually have an aptitude for this work and take a liking to the local small communities. They are fulfilling a role and I believe we could add some flexibility into the system to enable some of these people to roll into maybe not permanent citizenship but maybe a longer term arrangement. Indeed, I have a committee in the northern part of my electorate now working with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, NSW Farmers and local businesses, looking at different possibilities to come up with a visa category that would fit these farm workers.

On the other side of the coin I am concerned that there is a percentage of the citizens in my electorate that are being left behind. Due to the modernisation of agriculture and mining industries, a lot of people now have been excluded from the workforce. You cannot work in agriculture unless you have some qualification in chemical accreditation or you are able to program a GPS. The technology in a lot of this equipment is beyond some people. I firmly believe that we need to be upskilling a lot of people in my electorate.

This is particularly relevant to the Aboriginal community. For many of those people who were formerly working in the cotton industry, land clearing and the like, changes in technology have precluded them from a lot of those jobs. In an attempt to address that I am working very hard with the shadow minister for the environment to try to get some Green Army projects up in these areas, particularly in the Boggabilla-Toomelah area, where long-term unemployed Aboriginal people can get a job in resource management. There will be a partnership with the Moree Plains Council and work can be done on weed spraying, riverbank control and the like. The proviso is that in the last month or so of this program there would be a transition into work on local farms and local businesses. I believe that this has got potential. I will be continuing my lobbying of the shadow minister so that, if there is a change of government in September, we can put something into these communities that is of a practical nature that will deliver real outcomes, because if there is one thing that can put stability and future into a home it is a job.