IT sector fires up over PM's 457 immigration visa crackdown

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Created on Friday, 15 March 2013 13:03

Written by Editorial staff

The prime minister's crackdown on 457 immigration visas has taken a turn for the worse, with a number of industries continuing to rail against the reforms.

In a speech to an Australian Council of Trade Unions summit, Ms Gillard labelled the information technology (IT) industry as a repeat offender when it comes to employing foreign labour over domestic employees.

"Fact: there is clear evidence that in some growing sectors, importing workers on 457 visas is a substitute for spreading important economic opportunity to Australian working people," she explained.

The Labor leader continued by saying that outside the resource rich states of Western Australia and Queensland, the IT sector is the biggest employer of overseas temporary workers.

Matt Barrie, a campaigner of better IT education in Australia and the chief executive of Freelancer.com, told Fairfax that his operation is always looking for local workers, but none are applying.

He said: "There wouldn't be an IT industry in Australia if it wasn't for the fact that we could draw from overseas labour."

Mr Barrie said that the government is to blame, as domestic employees cannot be found, principally because the education system has ignored this particular sector. He also described the government's pursuit of foreign workers as "desperate vote-mongering".

The Australian Computer Society backed up the claim of skills shortages, with its 2012 statistical compendium showing the number of IT students between 2003 and 2010 halved.

The Freelancer.com boss also highlighted how job vacancies for office manager positions sees his inbox flooded by applications, while local software engineers would apply for a position at the rate of roughly one a day.

But it is not just the IT sector that the prime minister has in her sights - the health industry will also be under scrutiny when it comes to these 457 reforms.

Ms Gillard said in her speech that the prevalence of overseas workers for the purposes of working in the health and social services industry is "striking".

Demographer and government adviser professor Peter McDonald told the ABC that the prime minister's comments regarding the health sector were "quite nasty".

Professor McDonald said foreign doctors are often propping up communities, working in regional areas where there would not otherwise be a medical professional. Pharmacists and doctors in country towns could be the only ones for miles, he explained, and to demean them in the fashion is doing them a disservice.