Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Vanstone, the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Is the minister aware of comments attributed to her in today’s Australian Financial Review about 24 foreign workers employed by ABC Tissue Products at Wetherill Park in Sydney that said that there were some irregularities with the payments they were making to visa holders that required attention? Can the minister explain what the irregularities with the payments were? Were the foreign workers being underpaid or overworked, or is it the case that these workers are in fact unskilled? What actions did the department or the minister take to make sure that Australian skilled tradespeople were not available to do the same work? Is the minister now prepared to table the report prepared by her department after its visit to ABC Tissue on 28 August 2005, as well as the department’s correspondence with the company about guest workers employed at the work site?