With pressure mounting on Malcolm Turnbull over 457 visas, the Coalition has thrown-up another fig leaf:
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has continued the “Australia-first” jobs pitch, seized upon by both major parties in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, confirming the Turnbull government will condense the number of occupations eligible for a 457 visa…
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Mr Dutton said the government was also looking to narrow the number of occupations eligible for a 457 visa.
“We are having a look at it right now and I think it will be condensed,” he said… the difficulty of course is to try and get the balance right… but I think the list at the moment is expansive and I think we will condense it and that work has already been under way for sometime and we will have a look at that very soon.”
So no concrete action, just another delaying tactic. And this follows the piss-weak announcement last week that the Turnbull Government will require a 457 visa holder who loses their job to leave the country within 60 days, down from the current 90 days, if they are unable to find a new sponsor.
There are four underlying problems with the 457 visa system that need addressing, namely:
- There are way too many occupations on the skills shortages list.
- Those working under the skill level 1 (so-called “Managers and Professionals”) and skill level 2 (so-called “Associate Professionals”) are not subject to any labour market testing to determine whether an Australian can do the job first. Hence, nearly 80% of total 457 visa holders are not currently subject to labour market testing.
- Where labour market testing is required it can be overcome by putting an ad on Facebook or other social media and that is enough to show that you’ve tested the labour market – basically a farce.
- The 457 visa system is not sufficiently responsive either to higher levels of unemployment, or to labour market changes in specific skilled occupations.
These shortcomings have been expertly identified by Dr Joanna Howe, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Adelaide (see here and here) as well as in the recent Senate report entitled A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders.
Rather than pretending to care, the Coalition should instead seek to implement the recommendations of the aforementioned Senate Report, including:
- indexing the minimum income threshold for 457 visa holders to ordinary weekly earnings, so that it is not eroded over time;
- implementing a more rigorous, independent, evidence-based, and transparent processes for determining the Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List (CSOL);
- implementing stringent labour market testing of all 457 visa nominations to ensure that employers employ locals first wherever possible;
- specifically prohibiting the replacement of local workers by 457 visa workers;
- making employer sponsors of a 457 visa worker (professional) also employ an Australian tertiary graduate in the same enterprise on a one-for-one basis;
- requiring employer sponsors of a 457 visa worker (trade) to demonstrate that apprentices represent 25% of the sponsor’s total trade workforce; and
- implementing a $4,000 training levy paid per 457 visa holder employed in the business.
In short, stop bullshitting and fix the problem.
