Union leaders have been dumped from the Coalition government's skilled migration advisory panel in an effort to stop the “rabid debate” about foreign worker exploitation.

The Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration (MACSM) has had a major overhaul with three union leaders dumped from the panel which advises the government “on visa and policy settings to optimise the contribution of skilled migration to Australia’s productivity and economy.” Only a single union representative now remains in the panel.

Heading the panel will be Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox who called for an end to the "rabid debate" over the alleged exploitation of foreign workers after being appointed to head the Abbott government's advisory panel on skilled migration.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Willox said the previous council became bogged down in a "quite a destructive discussion" about 457 visa workers.

"We need to shift the debate," he said. "We had a rabid debate through 2012-13 on the whole issue of skilled migration and we need to shift the agenda a bit to have a holistic view around skilled migration's role in the overall skills mix, how it fits in with the training agenda and what the needs of business are, both in the short and long term," he said.

Mr Willox said he believed there were adequate safeguards currently to ensure any abuse of foreign workers could be detected and acted upon.

Explaining the rationale for the selection, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash said the new council would "better meet industries" and Australia's needs in the skilled migration space, as the government has taken into consideration visa reviews and recommendations to guide us in putting together a panel.

"One of the first tasks of the panel will be to review the composition of the consolidated sponsored occupations list, with a view to increasing the productivity contribution of sponsored migration," she said in a media statement.

The first meeting of MACSM will be held in Sydney on 19 June 2015.  

MACSM members of the Council are: 

• Mr Innes Willox, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Industry Group (Chair)
• Mr John Azarias, Senior Partner from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu;
• Ms Su McCluskey, Chief Executive Officer at Regional Australia Institute;
• Mr Steve Knott, Chief Executive of Australian Mines and Metals Association;
• Mr Brett Moller, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland;
• Ms Carol Giuseppi, Acting Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Accommodation Australia; and
• Ms Sylvia Burbery, General Manager of Mars Petcare Australia/New Zealand.
• Ms Gerardine Kearney, ACTU president