Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

This is an important issue and I am pleased that it has been raised in this way. There are issues about the management of the 457 visa program that need to be addressed, but I also believe that the Labor Party are grossly overstating their case and, in many respects, unnecessarily and unhelpfully running down what is a valuable component of our migration system. It is a visa that has been around for a long time, and it is one that I support. That does not mean that there are not issues in terms of how it is managed, and I think that there are some aspects of that that the government needs to look at more closely.

The position that Labor have put forward has some merit; there is some substance there. But overstating the case not only is creating an incorrect perception about 457 visas—and we heard from Senator Boswell about the very legitimate, extremely valuable and indeed essential role that 457 visas play in many parts of Australia, including regional Australia—but also has too much of an anti-migrant dog whistle about it for me. Given how much energy I and the Democrats have for many years put into promoting multiculturalism, supporting migration and ringing alarm bells whenever there is an anti-migrant type of campaign being run, I think that by overstating the problems here there is too much of an anti-migrant dog whistle about this whole campaign. That is something that the Labor Party need to be very careful about. I am not suggesting that that is their intent—I certainly do not suggest that that is Senator Ludwig’s intent—but it is nonetheless present and it comes through in some of the components of the way this campaign is being run, and that is a concern.

I also think that the use of the term ‘guest worker’ is not particularly helpful. It is a term that basically means whatever people want it to mean. Any person on a temporary visa who is employed could be called a guest worker. As I said, the 457 visa has been around for a long time. The key issue—and I am sure this is where Senator Ludwig’s concern is—is ensuring that those people are not exploited. There are some legitimate concerns about that, and I commend the work that some in the Labor Party and the union movement have done to address that exploitation and to try and pressure the government to do more to prevent it. That is a genuine concern, and this is where the government must acknowledge some problems and must do more to fix them.

The simple reality is that there has been a massive increase in the number of people who have come in on 457 visas in recent years. Remember that this visa has been around for a long time. The real issue is that the dramatic increase in visa numbers has made it much harder to police the visa and ensure that people are not being exploited—or indeed that people coming out here on it are not doing so under false pretences. In round figures, back in 2001-02 there were 37,600 457 visas issued. The next year, 42,400 were issued. The next year, 40,600 were issued. The year after that, 2004-05, there was about a 20 per cent increase in one year, up to almost 50,000. In the financial year just finished, there were nearly 72,000 issued, which is more than a 40 per cent leap in just one year. The practical reality is that such a huge leap over the space of two years is going to create enormous difficulties in policing it. That is where the federal government must do more. I believe that more must be done to ensure that the rights of people who are here on 457 visas are properly met.

We have had calls made by the ACTU and others saying that the skilled migration visas should be stopped immediately. That is a ridiculous overstatement, and it creates a completely false and unhelpful impression of the nature of skilled migration visas. It reinforces all those old myths and subconscious messages about migrants coming to take your jobs. Frankly, that is a whole line of thought and a whole line of political argument that has a pretty sad and dangerous history in Australia. We need to be careful about going anywhere near that turf.

That is not to say that there are not issues to do with ensuring that people are not exploited, are not paid dramatically less than the award wage and are not avoiding the requirements that they have to meet. If employers use the 457 visa according to its requirements then they will not just pay the minimum salary level and ensure that people meet the minimum skill level but also ensure that visa, transport and medical insurance costs are paid. Because those sorts of things are not cheap, employers are not likely to use a 457 visa if there is local labour around.

We all know that there are significant parts of Australia where there are not people available to do some of these jobs. Senator Boswell talked about abattoirs. Indeed, apart from 457 visa holders keeping abattoirs open, we all know—I hope—about the role that many refugees on temporary protection visas played in keeping abattoirs open in many rural and regional towns. Indeed, I would suggest that it is not too fanciful to propose that it was the work of some of those temporary refugee visa holders in abattoirs and in fruit picking and the like in the member for Forrest’s electorate in Victoria that exposed him to the fact that these refugees were hardworking and genuine people who simply wanted to get on with their lives and escape persecution. That may even have played a part in the stance that he took on refugee legislation in the House of Representatives last week. This sort of demonising of people as though they are coming in to take people’s jobs is unhelpful, and that needs to be avoided in this debate.

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the federal government should be condemned, as stated in this MPI, for its ‘failure to provide Australians with the training needed to meet the current skills crisis’. I am not saying that we could have met all the requirements and that we would not have needed any 457 visas; obviously it has been used for a long time. But it is a massive increase in a short space of time, and it is coupled with the undeniable fact that, compared with other countries in the OECD, we have dramatically underinvested in education and training. That is just a simple fact.

It is not just a matter of people going to university, as Senator Boswell said. There may be a tiny bit of validity in that, but I understand that the greatest occupational category of people coming in on 457 visas has been nurses and other health workers—a lot of people with university degrees. So it is not just a matter of universities versus TAFE; it is a matter of complete underinvestment by the federal government in all forms of education and training. That is a matter of record and this is part of its consequences. Whilst I am strongly in favour of allowing migrants in—including from low-income countries—it is nonetheless not the best thing to have such large increases over a short space of time. That does make it more difficult to manage and it makes it more difficult for the workers too.

That leads me to another area where I think more needs to be done. I spoke in this chamber just a day or two ago about assistance to people who come here on 457 visas. I note that a report in the West Australian earlier this year talked about the significant impact on schools when children arrive with their families under this visa category and they do not receive the same level of English language tuition and support that children of permanent migrants receive. We have always used settlement assistance for people who arrive on permanent visas, but 457 visas are for up to four years and they can be transferred to permanent visas. There is no point waiting until people have been here for four years to see whether or not they are going to settle and whether there are English language issues for their children.

We need to have more casework and outreach assistance for people who come here. That will cost more money as well, but it is an investment well worth making for the broader economic benefits that, as I am sure all the government speakers will agree, these migrants—temporary or permanent—bring to Australia. There are actions the government needs to take. (Time expired)