457 visa program axed by Malcolm Turnbull

Pauline Hanson and Cory Bernardi claim credit for Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to scrap the 457 visa program.

The Turnbull government is abolishing 457 visas for skilled migrants and replacing it with a tighter program. In a Facebook-first announcement, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the temporary visas for foreign workers would be replaced by a new class of visa, better targeted to ensure that foreign workers were only brought in to fill genuine skills shortages.

Announcing the changes at a press conference in Canberra a short time after the Facebook announcement, Mr Turnbull said the new visa would ensure that foreign workers were brought into Australia to fill critical skill gaps and not simply because an employer finds it easier to recruit a foreign worker than go to the trouble of hiring an Australian.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said anyone now in Australia on a 457 visa will not be affected by the new arrangements. “They will continue under the conditions of that visa,” Mr Dutton said. As at September 30 last year there were 95,757 workers in Australia on primary 457 visas and 76,430 secondary visa holders (members of their family).

Mr Turnbull said the Labor Party had been “Olympic champions” in the issuance of 457 visas. “Bill Shorten, the gold medal winner among them all,” Mr Turnbull said. “During his time the number of 457s increased by two-thirds during the last term of the Labor government, and less than 10 per cent of that increase went to the mining sector. So, this wasn’t about the mining boom and the need to bring in new skilled workers. These were people, working as labourers, working flipping burgers.’’

The new visa will include a short term two-year stream with a broad list of occupations reduced from the current list of more than 200. “This is a very substantial reduction in the list of skills that qualify for these visas,” Mr Turnbull said.

A second visa class, focused on strategic, long-term skills gaps will have a four-year limit and require a higher standard of English than the two-year visa. Both will require prior work experience.

“That is not the case at the moment,” Mr Turnbull said.

Both visas will require a criminal record check, which is not currently required. Mr Turnbull said the four-year visa would also require mandatory labour market testing in the majority of cases.

Mr Dutton said the abolition of the 457 program was an attempt to clean up Labor’s mess.

“Labor presided over a policy which got out-of-control by their own admission,” he said.

“What we are doing is making some significant changes in abolishing the program, but introducing a temporary skills shortage visa through two streams.

“At the moment the existing 457 visa program is conducted for a period of four years, but essentially it is open-ended, and it results, in many cases, in a migration outcome, somebody going into permanent residency and becoming a citizen, which is a significant part of the attraction to using the 457 visa.”

PM Malcolm Turnbull holding a press conference with the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton at Parliament House this afternoon. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Dutton said there would be no permanent residency outcomes at the end of the new short-term two-year visa. “In relation to the medium-term stream, which as the Prime Minister pointed out, is targeted at higher skills, a much shorter skills list,that will be for a period of four years, can be applied for onshore or offshore, and it’s a significant tightening of the way in which that program operates,” he said.

The new scheme will require employers to advertise jobs before filling them with foreign workers. A fee of $1150 will apply for the short term visa, while medium-term applicants will pay $2400.

Asked whether the announcement was a response to Pauline Hanson’s rhetoric on foreign workers, Mr Turnbull said it was a decision of his government as a result of a review of the system. “This has been a careful exercise in policy development, and we’re announcing the conclusions today,” he said.

Under the changes, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection will collect Tax File Numbers and data will be matched with the Australian Tax Office’s records for holders of the new visas. Visa applicants will need to have at least three years’ work experience and applicants must be under the maximum age requirement of 45 at the time of application.

In his video posted to Facebook, Mr Turnbull said: “Australia is the most successful multicultural nation in the world. We are an immigration nation, but the fact remains: Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs. So we’re abolishing 457 visas, the visas that bring temporary foreign workers to our country.”

Mr Turnbull said the government would no longer allow 457 visas “to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians’’.

He said it was, however, important that businesses still get access to the skills they need to grow and invest.

“So the 457 visa will be replaced by a new temporary visa specifically designed to recruit the best and the brightest in the national interest,” Mr Turnbull said.

“The new visa will better target genuine skills shortages including in regional Australia.

“It will include new requirements including previous work experience, better English language proficiency and labour market testing.”

The government will also establish a new training fund to help train Australians to fill skills gaps.

“I’ll have more to say about all this in the coming days and weeks, but our reforms will have a simple focus: Australian jobs and Australian values,” Mr Turnbull said.

Political reaction

Pauline Hanson accused the government of copying One Nation policy. “The Government will deny their tough talk on immigration & plan to ban 457 visas is because of One Nation but we all know the truth,’’ Senator Hanson said.

The Government will deny their tough talk on immigration & plan to ban 457 visas is because of One Nation but we all know the truth! #auspol

— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) April 18, 2017

Now the Government should release my apprenticeship scheme policy to ensure Australia has the skilled labour it needs in the future. #auspol

— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) April 18, 2017

Cory Bernardi, who defected from the Coalition to set up his own Australian Conservatives party, joined One Nation in claiming credit.

Pleased to see changes to work visa system but wouldn't be happening without @AuConservatives reminding gov what it should be doing. #Auspol

— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) April 18, 2017

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was quick to declare that the only job Mr Turnbull cared about saving was his own as Prime Minister.

Make no mistake, the only job Malcolm Turnbull cares about saving is his own.

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) April 18, 2017

Mr Shorten accused the government of trying to distract from their current record by highlighting his as employment minister. “They’ve been the government for four years,” he said. “We’ve got 1.13 million people who are underemployed not getting enough hours of work. We’ve seen the scandals of 7-11 and other rip-offs of foreign visa workers and we’ve got a lot of Australians who say they would like to get work but instead it’s going to temporary foreign labour.”

Mr Shorten said only Labor could be trusted to fix the rorts in the 457 and other visa programs.

“We stand up for well-paid Australian jobs,” he said. “It’s 25 days out from the budget and all this government are able to do is fight amongst themselves. They’re not going to get this budget right because they’re not putting the work into it. You’ve got Tony Abbott out there again criticising the government, other members of the government criticising Tony Abbott. You cannot run a proper government and fight for Australian jobs if you can’t keep the division under control.”

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the PM’s announcement was more like a “dog whistle than genuine policy’’.

Malcolm Turnbull's announcement to scrap 457 visas sounds more like a dog whistle than a genuine policy to grow jobs for young Australians

— Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) April 18, 2017

Business and union reaction

Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott said “the capacity for businesses to hire temporary workers to fill genuine skill shortages has been an overall boon for Australia, allowing the economy to ride out volatile economic cycles including in the mining industry.

“Businesses naturally prefer to hire Australians wherever possible – it’s easier, it’s cheaper and it means workers come ready with valuable local knowledge and skills. However, when there aren’t enough skilled workers available, a small number of temporary visas can be the deciding factor in whether or not a large investment goes ahead.

“Now that the government has taken this decision, it is crucial that they work with employers to get the details right and ensure industry’s ability to fill genuine skills shortages is enhanced, not degraded.

“If we’re serious about getting Australians into skilled jobs, we must also revitalise our neglected vocational education and training system which has been treated like the poor cousin of the universities. We also need to look at the kinds of incentives that could encourage Australians to take up jobs in regional areas. It is vital that the new list of occupational categories be flexible so it can be reviewed by industry and government, and updated as economic circumstances change. The new scheme should include frequent public reporting about how the visas are used to ensure public confidence in the scheme.

“The government should ensure that all Employment Migration Agreements are preserved as they underpin investments across the country that employ thousands of Australians.”

Australian Industry Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, welcomed today’s changes to the skilled visa system. “The 457 Visa system was a highly valued program but misunderstandings of its use and exaggerations of its misuse led it to become a lightning rod for anti-migration sentiments,’’ Mr Willox said.

“Ending that visa category, adding limits and more clearly defining its successor visas will help draw the focus back to the program’s primary purpose: addressing the pockets of skill shortages that persist in our economy.

“Integrity measures such as requiring visa holders to obtain and declare a Tax File Number combined with increased scrutiny of business sponsors are simple ways to further protect against abuse of the system.

“Given that many of the temporary skilled visas holders move on to become permanent migrants, the stronger focus of the new program on attracting higher valued skilled workers will have lasting, beneficial effects for our economy.

“The new approach to the Skilled Occupation List will also assist in identifying genuine skill shortages and guarding against often opportunistic spikes in applications for vague or non-essential skill categories.’’

Mr Willox is also a chair of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration and Chair of Migration Council Australia.

The National Farmers Federation said the demise of the 457 regime was not disastrous for the farm sector. That’s because the program did not recognise many of the skills farmers required, largely because many occupations had skill levels classified too low to meet the required threshold. But the NFF wants to hear more details before backing the government plan. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said there were still jobs in regional areas that Australians did not want to “whether it is packing offal in an abattoir or boning out skulls”.

Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey dismissed the new arrangements, saying it’s unlikely there will be any real change. “What we really need is a root and branch review, so that migrant exploitation and wage theft is properly tackled and Australian standards are both maintained and improved.”