Australia’s foreign worker crisis explodes

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By Leith van Onselen

The 7-Eleven scandal continues to shine a bright light on Australia’s dodgy visa system, with 7-Eleven’s newly minted chairman declaring that the nation has a widespread problem with wages fraud. From Fairfax:

Speaking as 7-Eleven chairman and billionaire Russ Withers and chief executive Warren Wilmot resigned from their roles, Michael Smith told Fairfax Media that his company’s problems were the tip of the iceberg for wage exploitation of young and foreign workers in Australia and made a plea for an immigration amnesty for affected workers.

“We have a problem in this country,” said Mr Smith who has been on the board of 7-Eleven since 1999 and became deputy chairman in August 2014.

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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.