Overseas Workers Good For Regional Australia

14 May 2013

The Gillard government has been found out on the question of 457 visa breaches - they made it up.

First it was the Prime Minister during her farcical week in western Sydney who vowed to put Australians first in the jobs queue and who cast aspersions on the whole 457 visa process.

Employers quite rightly sought evidence where the system is being rorted, but the Prime Minister could not and would not answer.

Second, immigration minister Brendan O’Connor has been forced to admit his claim “the 457 visa scheme had been rorted 10,000 times” was an estimate.

No evidence, no data, just a claim he hoped would further undermine the 457 visa process.

Neither have done their homework, and it flushed out their major backers the Transport Workers Union and Maritime Union of Australia who were left red-faced when they had to admit they hired from overseas.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship identified some options for tightening the rules but said it was rare to find cases of employers discriminating in favor of overseas workers.

The Coalition supports some changes to the process to ensure the rules are clear-cut, but there are many employers in the meat and seasonal industries who have relied on the 457 visa system to get workers.

We can’t allow fruit to rot on the trees because growers cannot get locals to work, or the local labor pool is exhausted. We also have the problem of some unemployed people refusing to travel to other areas to take up work.

The 457 visas have proven beneficial to regional Australia and it does not deserve to be tarnished by a desperate government that is prepared to say anything, even mistruths, to save their electoral skin.

Source: http://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/1497418/overseas-workers-good-for-regional-australia/?cs=111