In an interview with David Speers of Sky News, Canberra, DIBP Minister Scott Morrison, holds firm on the Coalition governments determination to reduce red-tape on skilled immigration but adds that there will be a focus on 'integrity measures' of the programme.

David Speers: The Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is with me this afternoon. Thank you for your time. I want to start on the 457 visas. Unions have been expressing concern today about a loophole they say has been reopened that is going to allow more foreign workers in at a time when unemployment is rising. Explain to me exactly what the government has done here.

Minister Morrison: Well it is quite a minor change. What it involves is that when someone has already been approved to be a sponsor of 457s rather than having to go back and fill out all the paperwork again to have that renewed when they have reached a certain number of employees they can continue to do it but every single 457 employee who has been employed must satisfy all the tests that are currently required for finding an Australian do the job first. So there is no change to that.

David Speers: Does it mean for example that employers will no longer face a penalty if they bring in more than they had applied for?

Minister Morrison: What it means is if they want to employ someone on 457s they need to satisfy all the advertising tests and all of the tests of finding an Australian worker first and if they can't find an Australian worker then we are not going to make them go back and fill out a whole bunch more forms which costs them time and money for their business. So this is about regulation reduction, removing the union red tape that was put there by the previous government.

David Speers: Sure but the union claim here is that before this was put in place they cited the example of one employer who I think applied for 100 visas over three years and ended up bringing 800 workers.

Minister Morrison: That is the point though David. That is before they made some changes last year…

David Speers: And this will not undo that?

Minister Morrison: No it doesn't undo that. What this does is you still have to go back and do all the market testing to fill the position. This is just a continuation of the union hysterical campaign joined in by the Labor Party last year which is basically attacking skilled migration in this country. Skilled migration has been incredibly important for Australia and we want to see it continue to be important. We do not want to see it tied up in union red tape but there has to be integrity measures and that is what we are focusing on.

David Speers: At a time when unemployment is going up do you believe we should be bringing in more 457 workers?

Minister Morrison: Well I think we need to have a measured programme and I think we have to have integrity in the programme and I think we should have to find Australian residents first for those jobs. I must admit David I am a little disappointed with Bill Shorten today because what I had hoped was they had buried that partisan debate around skilled migration in the last dysfunctional Parliament but it seems that Bill Shorten, addicted to unions, can't rise about his union background, is going to continue that ugly debate from the last Parliament attacking skilled migration. I think it is very unfortunate. There should be a unity ticket on skilled migration in this country but clearly there isn't, the Labor Party is still going to oppose it.

David Speers: Let me turn to asylum seekers, more than 80 days now since a boat made it to Australia.

Minister Morrison: That's right.

David Speers: Are you claiming victory yet?

Minister Morrison: Of course not. The tension needs to be maintained in the cord on this and you need to be ever vigilant but it is 82 days now and that is something that I am sure many thought would never be able to be achieved and we are making extraordinary progress here but we need to continue to keep the pressure on.

David Speers: In relation to the Manus Island riot on February 17 there are various reports about tensions still existing there, about contractors being locked out, how would you describe the situation at Manus Island today?

Minister Morrison: Oh look there are still tensions and I think there will be while it is managed and we are managing those issues very careful about the placement of locally engaged staff and all of those issues. We have got a transition occurring between the contractors the Labor Party had put on and we are transitioning those contractors that we brought in so we have one set of contractors operating over both Nauru and Manus Island. Look the situation needs to be managed sensitively and that's what we are doing.

David Speers: Are any of the locals being locked out?

Minister Morrison: No the locals are still employed and engaged in the running of the centre but we have not got them involved directly in compounds and I think that is a common sense sensitive measure for a period of time but over time we will continue to adjust that and be sensitive in how we do it.

David Speers: We haven't heard a lot about some of the other injuries that took place in that riot, there was one asylum seeker flown to Australia for treatment. Is it true that man lost his eye and has now been returned to Manus Island?

Minister Morrison: I am not going to go into the specifics of those things today David. There is a review that is underway and all this will be chronicled in the conduct of that…

David Speers: Will we see that review?

Minister Morrison: We will follow the exact same process that was followed for the Nauru incident. That was the process the previous government set up. We will follow exactly the same process they had.

David Speers: Which is what?

Minister Morrison: We will release the report in the same terms that the Nauru report was released.

David Speers: Alright. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison thanks for joining us.

Minister Morrison: Thanks a lot.

Transcript released by the Ministers Office.