Unions to lobby new immigration minister

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Created on Wednesday, 06 February 2013 17:31

Written by Editorial staff

Due to a recent reshuffle of the federal government's frontbench, unions will be pushing the new immigration minister to reform foreign job protocols.

The Australian reported that as Brendan O'Connor assumes the role of immigration and citizenship minister, the issue of foreign skilled workers taking up lucrative mining positions will be pushed to the front of the agenda by interested parties.

One particular concern of unions is Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMA), whereby employers can strike a deal with government to bring over large numbers of workers.

The most famous and possibly most controversial example is mining magnate Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill mine where she has been given approval to import 1,700 workers for the $9.5 billion project.

Unions fear that a Coalition government will widen the use of those agreements, where miners can bring in semi-skilled employees en masse for projects worth more than $2 billion.

Mr O'Connor is perceived to be friendlier to the union agenda than Chris Bowen, given his past history as an official.

Peter Tighe, the national secretary from the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, told News Limited that they believe in putting Australian jobs first. Mr Tighe explained the parameters of the EMAs are not tight enough and that 457 immigration visas have been used too often and therefore unions will be lobbying the new minister hard.

Despite the official's assertions, new statistics show demand by employers for 457 visas has reduced over the last six months.

Temporary work visa applications have declined since June 2012, with three consecutive drops over the last three months.

From June to November last year, applications fell by four per cent, while visa approvals for the 457s dropped 12 per cent, according to a Department of Immigration and Citizenship spokesperson.

He said: "While the subclass 457 visa stock figure is still high, new take-up of the program is declining, particularly in the construction and mining industries that have driven much of the recent growth in the program.

"Use of the program has fallen across a number of industries that have traditionally been among some of the other big users of the program including health care and social assistance, information media and telecommunications."

In what could be representative of a strong labour market, New South Wales has seen the greatest number of 457 visa system users in 2012-13.

The spokesperson added that despite the trend of tradespeople using the visa, 64 per cent of 457 holders are business professionals who typically have a tertiary qualification such as a bachelor degree.