Daniel Hurst and Judith Ireland
March 6, 2013
457 rorts an exception
457 visa rorts exist but represent a fraction of cases, says Professor Peter McDonald, member of the government's advisory panel on skilled migration.
The number of employers found to have abused the foreign worker visa program has steadily declined over the past three years, casting serious doubts about the rationale behind the Gillard government's new push to crack down on ''rorts''.
The revelations came as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott launched a full-frontal assault on Prime Minister Julia Gillard, accusing her of ''demonising foreigners'' with her vow in western Sydney on Sunday to put ''Aussie workers'' at the front of the jobs queue.
On an extraordinary day where both sides of politics accused the other of fear mongering over immigration, Ms Gillard responded to Mr Abbott's attacks by criticising the Opposition Leader's language over asylum seekers, including his reference to a ''peaceful invasion'' of boat people.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
At the centre of the debate was the government's decision last month to tighten obligations on employers bringing foreign workers into the country under the 457 visa program because of alleged rorting.
Ms Gillard justified the policy in a keynote address that launched her swing through Sydney's west as an attempt ''to stop foreign workers being put at the front of the queue with Australian workers at the back''.
But figures from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship reveal the number of administrative sanctions - barring or cancelling a sponsor from the 457 visa program - declined from 164 in the 2009-10 financial year to 137 in 2010-11 and 125 in 2011-12.
The department also confirmed it had brought only three civil cases against employers for misusing the section 457 visa program since September 2009.
Two cases were settled out of court, including one in which a Melbourne-based sponsor was fined $5000 for creating non-genuine positions in the business for the purposes of family reunion.
While there was a decline in serious breaches, there was a spike in infringement notices for minor offences last financial year. The number of such fines increased from two to seven to 49 over the same period, a department spokesman said.
Australian workers not missing out
A federal government adviser on skilled migration said it was not true that foreign workers were being put at the front of the queue at the expense of Australian workers.
ANU demographer Professor Peter McDonald, who is a member of the federal government's Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration, told ABC Radio on Tuesday that while he agreed with Labor's recently announced crackdown on 457 visas to improve the integrity of 457s, he did not support its characterisation of the problem.
Professor McDonald said the rate of rorting in the 457 visa class was ''anybody's guess, but he estimated that there were about 2 or 3 per cent of employers who were ''behaving badly'' by getting around the requirements of the system.
''I don't approve of some the statements coming from the government side, which are way too general,'' he said.
'Abuse more widespread'
Despite these figures and the comments by Professor McDonald, Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor told Sky News on Wednesday that rorting is ''more widespread than has just been referred to''.
When asked what his estimate of the rate of abuse was, he could not give a specific figure.
''That's why I'm getting further information,'' he said.
Mr O'Connor said that there had been a much higher level of complaints from Australian workers about missing out on jobs.
''The government will not be distracted from ensuring that Australian workers will not be discriminated against,'' he said.
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver repeated the union movement's concerns about the increase in 457 visa workers on Tuesday night.
''The union movement is not opposed to skilled migration and we prefer migration to be done more on a permanent basis. But what we found with the 457 class of visa, it's led to significant exploitation of workers and it's been a case where employers have found it as an easy option to overlook local workers,'' he told the ABC's Lateline.
Hanson pledges support
The government's stance has received support from a usually hostile source, former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Ms Hanson told The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday that she ''totally'' agreed with Ms Gillard's comments on foreign labour.
Mr O'Connor said he found most of Ms Hanson's views reprehensible.
''She's irrelevant to the public debate,'' he said.
''She, of course, only came into the public spotlight because she was a Liberal candidate.''
Foreign workers 'drive down wages
Mr O'Connor said there was evidence that wages were dropping in occupations where there was a ''saturation'' of temporary foreign workers.
''What that says to me is overseas workers are willing to come in on lesser wages which have pushed down wages at a time when wages should have been on the rise,'' he said.
But Professor McDonald said international research showed that Australia was one of the few countries in the world where migration actually improved the wages of low income workers.
The number of foreign workers in Australia has waxed and waned in recent years. It almost doubled over the two years to June 2012, but has eased since August 2012 to 83,840.
PM accused of hypocrisy
Following Mr Abbott's claims on Monday night that the Prime Minister had vilified foreigners, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey on Tuesday morning accused Ms Gillard of hypocrisy, pointing to the employment of her communications director, John McTernan, a British citizen, on a 457 visa.
''Julia Gillard says people on 457 visas are taking the jobs of everyday Australians; aren't there people in her office who are on 457 visas? And how did they get security clearance to access some of the most sensitive documents of Australia?'' Mr Hockey said.
Ms Gillard's office described it as more ''relentless negativity'' from the opposition.
Employer groups have argued cases of abuse were relatively rare and should be dealt with under the existing penalty regime.
Ms Gillard said the government was tightening the 457 visa program in response to ''community feedback'' but was unable to point to specific examples of worsening exploitation and rorts.
''Around the country, I and members of parliament in the Labor team do hear concerns from people about them being ready to take a job and with the appropriate qualifications, and not getting a go,'' she said.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said Ms Gillard had launched the crackdown because she was ''desperate to shore up the union support that keeps her in the job''.
with AAP
