Coalition continues to undermine local workers

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ScreenHunter_2989 Jun. 26 08.16

By Leith van Onselen

Late last month, the federal Department of Employment questioned the efficacy of Australia’s 457 temporary worker visa system, arguing that it has created a continued reliance on foreign workers rather than developing required skills onshore.

The criticism followed the Department’s own labour shortages report, released in February, which claimed that “skill shortages continued to abate” and that employers in 2013 “generally filled their vacancies with ease and had large fields of applicants from whom to choose”. 

Today, The AFR has questioned why the Abbott Government has chosen to keep accountants on a list of in-demand occupations for skilled migrants, which has gone against the Department of Employment’s recommendation to remove the occupation from the list in light of significant labour surpluses and poor job prospects for graduate accountants:

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The decision… comes despite the Department of Employment, which wanted accounting removed from the list, concluding there was a surplus of accountants and “deteriorating outcomes for graduates . . . relatively low pay rates for bachelor graduates and weak employment outcomes for masters graduates”…

“[The Department of Employment] says there are 40.5 applications on average for each accounting job and they are qualified applicants with professional membership”…

The level of applicants per job is the highest of any profession group tracked by the Department of Employment…

By keeping accounting on the skilled occupation list, qualified foreign workers are permitted to apply for a permanent visa into Australia without a sponsor.

It is understood that universities, which derive income from international accounting students, and two of the major accounting bodies, which charge foreign accountants fees for membership and ­evaluating qualifications for migration, support keeping the occupation on the list.

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However, in the process, they effectively support making it systematically easier for employers to import labour from offshore rather than graduate locals, in turn depriving Australia’s youth of employment opportunities.

It also particularly cynical in light of the Budget’s tighter requirements on under-30s accessing to Newstart and increased university fees.

After all, what’s the point of spending significant time and money gaining a qualification if one cannot gain a decent paying job in their chosen field?

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.