‘Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs’: Turnbull abolishes 457s
Announcing the abolition of the 457 visa for foreign workers today, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said its replacement would be stricter and better target sectors which genuinely need overseas labour.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Turnbull government will abolish the controversial 457 visa program which is used by companies to bring in temporary foreign workers.
The visa will be replaced by a new temporary worker program which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said would be better targeted at sectors which genuinely need overseas labour.
“We will no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs.”
The new scheme will have more safeguards to prevent the inappropriate use of the visas, including better English language proficiency requirements and labour market testing.
It is a major new push by the government in the lead up to the May budget, with new Immigration Department figures yesterday showing the Coalition had already clamped down on the number of 457 visas granted in the past year.
There was serious concern that the visa system was being used to import thousands of tradespeople and nurses when there were Australians available for work.
The government will replace the 457 scheme with two separate visas, one for two years and another for four years.
They will both require two years of prior work experience before a candidate is eligible for the visa.
The number of skills part of the new visa program is significantly reduced than the current scheme, Mr Turnbull said.
It will also require a full police check and mandatory labour market testing.
The current 457 visa is valid for four years and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said it was often used for “permanent migration outcomes”.
The new two-year visa will not be able to be transferred into residency, but can be rolled over for a second two year period.
Immigration department figures obtained yesterday by the Daily Telegraph show that when Bill Shorten was employment minister, he oversaw the approval of 2853 457s for nurses, 3041 for cooks, 1536 for motor mechanics and nearly 1100 for electricians and plumbers.
Those numbers have fallen by about half under the Coalition government.
The scrapping of the 457 visa scheme will blunt Labor’s attack on the government, with Mr Shorten touring Queensland and NSW focusing on local jobs.
However, he took time out to slam the plan.
“Make no mistake, the only job Malcolm Turnbull cares about saving is his own,” he tweeted
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson took some credit for the policy change.
“The government will deny their tough talk on immigration and plan to ban 457 visas is because of One Nation but we all know the truth!” the senator tweeted. Mr Turnbull said Mr Shorten, as employment minister in a Labor government, was the gold medal winner of issuing 457 visas.
“The fact is that Bill Shorten likes to talk about Australian jobs, but whenever he’s had the opportunity in government to protect them, he’s failed them.”
Labor woos women with millions for menopause, pills and IUDs
Labor has promised women will pay less for healthcare from their very first period to menopause under a whopping $500m announcement ahead of the election.
Revealed: Email spruiking Kia Carnival before Haylen’s winery trip
A month before former transport minister Jo Haylen took the fateful trip to a winery in a taxpayer-funded Kia Carnival, bureaucrats in the Premier’s Department were spruiking the vehicle to ministers.