Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Vanstone, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Can the minister confirm that, in relation to the compliance measures for the 457 visa, the department currently visits 25 per cent of employers employing temporary foreign workers annually? I ask whether the department stated, in relation to these compliance visits, that:

... as we are there at the courtesy of the employer ... we do not as a matter of course take the employees away and interview them separately.

Isn’t it a fact that employers are warned before a visit and have the right to refuse entry to DIMA officers? Doesn’t this explain why thousands of these site visits have identified fewer than 10 cases of noncompliance? Hasn’t the government failed to protect the rights of temporary foreign workers and done little to deter those employers who want to abuse the program?