Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs has once again shown her incompetence in managing Australia’s migration program. It should be of great concern to this chamber that the very important 457 visa program has been so grossly mismanaged by Senator Vanstone. It is not a surprise to anyone here that the government’s new industrial relations laws have opened up a huge gap between the market rate for certain services and what is now the minimum rate. This widening gap is effectively pushing Australian wages down. As this matter of public importance notes, the minister herself has outrageously stated that the increasing number of guest workers is necessary to keep wages low. It is simply not acceptable that the skilled migration program, in combination with the government’s extreme industrial relations laws, be used to push Australian wages down. This not only creates hardship for Australian workers but also is an exploitation of skilled migrant workers, who come to Australia for the prospect of earning a decent wage for doing a fair day’s work.

The government’s approach is both wrong in principle and undermines the legitimacy of a skilled migrant program. I want to refer to evidence published in the People and Place journal by Bob Kinnaird which shows the negative impact that 457 visas have had on employment and training opportunities in the IT industry. Since 2001 the proportion of computer science graduates unable to find full-time work in their chosen profession has been at an all-time record high, and commencing enrolments by Australian students in IT courses have dramatically dropped. This is disgraceful, because we know that there are 5,000 or so skilled migrant workers in this area alone.

By allowing this to happen, the government is undermining a critical part of Australia’s economy now and in the future. The ICT sector is a part of every industry, as well as being a very important growth industry of its own. Young people opting out of this particular career path are basically putting themselves in a situation where they are being denied an opportunity. It all comes back to the fact that they are likely to be reading in the newspapers and hearing in the industry about the number of skilled migrant workers in IT and thinking: ‘I just can’t compete with those people, because they are being paid less than the market rate here. I do not want to do all that study and then have to compete for a lower salary.’

I also want to make note of the fact that the proportion of women in IT is lower than ever—in the undergraduate courses and among graduating students and participants in the IT sector. All these statistics represent very bad news and move against the need for Australia to develop our knowledge economy.

The temporary work visas should not be able to take opportunities away from anybody. The scheme is designed to fill legitimate skills gaps, and we have heard many times today that these gaps are actually a product of the lack of investment by this government in those industry sectors anyway. So it is gratuitous and misleading at best to come in here and say that somehow this is a comment that Labor do not support a skilled migrant program. We do, but we argue for it to be a legitimate program, solving a legitimate problem, not a device of the Howard government to manipulate levels of wages in this country and to permit exploitation of skilled migrant workers to achieve an industrial relations policy outcome for the Howard government. That is a disgusting tactic, and people are being deliberately hurt by this government because of it.

I am particularly concerned about the issue of exploitation of migrant workers. We have heard a number of examples from my Senate colleagues. I think senators are aware I have been involved in raising an issue here in parliament about specific exploitation of migrant workers in the hospitality industry, in restaurants here in Canberra. If we had not raised it, the minister would not have acted; the government would not have acted. I am absolutely convinced of that, and I think the evidence shows that to be the case. But, since I did raise it, there has been some activity. There has been a prosecution, for which a decision is pending; there are more prosecutions pending; and there has been a substantial amount of money paid to workers who were underpaid.

This week in the chamber the minister fessed up that there has been even more exploitation of workers—not of migrant workers this time but of local workers, of young people here in Canberra, who have been underpaid. What we know from public statements is that some 165 workers in some 55 restaurants have been underpaid. All that is on the public record is that 19 of the 55 restaurants owe some $62,000-plus to those workers, and we do not know the rest. We are still waiting on more information from the department. We are yet to get the full story. I remind senators that this is just in Canberra; imagine if the government did this investigation Australia-wide. It is very much the tip of the iceberg.

We also know that the Howard government is trying to brand these investigations as some type of evidence that the Office of Workplace Services is protecting workers’ interests. Nothing could be further from the truth, because they would not have done anything unless we pushed them. We know that now. And it is a massive own goal, because the investigations and prosecutions have been based on underpayment of award conditions—conditions from the same awards that have now been demolished by the government under the extreme IR changes. That changes everything.

I contend that, without an award providing that minimum standard, the skilled migration program will continue to be exploited by employers wanting to cut their wages bills. Ministers of the Howard government standing up and saying things like, ‘It’s about pushing wages down,’ is giving them explicit permission to exploit those workers. That is unacceptable and disgraceful behaviour as far as any public policy in relation to skilled migration or workplace relations goes. But there it is. It is on the record. This government is completely exposed. (Time expired)