Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is directed to Senator Vanstone, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Can the minister confirm information from her department on occupations filled by 457 visa holders that 43 waiters, 77 domestic housekeepers, 251 personal assistants and 1,594 elementary clerical workers entered Australia on the visa last year? Isn’t it the case that none of those occupations are on the list of skills shortages prepared and published by her department? Isn’t it the case that only 107 carpenters, 31 bricklayers, 25 plumbers and 13 plasterers were issued with 457 visas out of the total of 50,000 people who entered on that visa last year, and aren’t all those occupations actually on the skills list issued by the department? Don’t these figures prove that the 457 visa scheme has little to do with addressing skills shortages and is simply a free-for-all allowing some employers to seek new sources of cheap labour?

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was a very long question, Senator.

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator, if you indicate to me at some point after question time what the figures are to which you are referring—

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They’re off your website.

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator, for saying they are off the website. But, for someone who is familiar with these visas, they might be figures in relation to nominations, which would be different from figures in relation to visas granted, and both would be different from the stock in Australia at any one time—that is, the flow is different from the stock. The senator, with respect, has not made the specific location of the figures on which he wants me to comment clear. I am very happy to have a look at it and give him an answer but I do need more information than that.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am facing a situation here where there are senators behind their leader seeking to ask different questions from the leader’s, and it does make it a bit difficult to focus on what it is the leader wants to ask. I will take this, having indicated to the senator that if he gives me the particular source document he is commenting on we can have a conversation about it at some point when I have the opportunity to give him a sensible answer.

I did hear in the question, ‘Isn’t this an excuse to bring in low-income workers?’ The average salary on this visa is $60,000. That is not regarded by anyone as a low salary. That is the average salary for this visa. The biggest user of the visa, I am still advised—I will check if this is right—is the New South Wales Department of Health, and the biggest category are health workers all around Australia. The last I heard was that Labor governments were not in the process of bringing in people from overseas to undercut the wages of their own workers.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I am surprised the minister does not understand a bit more about how the scheme is operating. The information does come from both her website and the Parliamentary Library. Can the minister confirm that thousands more visas are issued for work in occupations which are not and never have been regarded as having a skills shortage than in jobs where there are known to be critical shortages, such as the health sector, to which she referred? How can it be that the government granted a mere nine 457 visas to panelbeaters but 25 to caravan and camping ground workers? Since when has there been a shortage of Australians able to work at caravan parks? Doesn’t this expose the minister’s assertions about the 457 visas being used to plug skills shortages as actually false? They are not about skills that are in short supply.

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What I have consistently said about the 457 visa is it is one of the most valuable visas to the Australian economy because it does allow skills shortages to be filled and to be filled quickly. But within that there is a tremendous range; people on salaries of hundreds of thousands of dollars are on these visas.

What appears to be a shortage nationally is not necessarily the same as a shortage for a particular company in a particular place. The senator might want to put the proposition—I would be interested if he does—that if you and your wife are in Perth and there is a job available in Queensland, and your wife is working and you are not, that your wife should quit her job and that you should move to Queensland for that job. The fact that there is not a national shortage does not mean that there is not a particular shortage in a particular area. (Time expired)