CFMEU: Abbott Government should not be negotiating our jobs away

The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, should not bow to pressure to allow for easier access of Indonesian temporary labour to Australia, the CFMEU said.

Referring to Mr Abbott’s visit to Indonesia and a call from Professor Hal Hill in the Australian Financial Review, to weaken the 457 visa rules, CFMEU Construction National Secretary, Mr Noonan expressed concern that workers in Australia would lose out if the government continued down the path of allowing temporary overseas labour in without Labour Market Testing (LMT).

“We understand that the Coalition Cabinet will soon be approving the negotiating mandates for easier access to 457 visas for temporary overseas labour in all international trade negotiations.

“Mr Abbott and his government govern for all Australians and their priority should be ensuring that the citizens of this country are able to work and train for jobs before companies can bring in temporary labour from overseas,” said Mr Noonan.

“Australia is currently offering to remove Labour Market Testing (LMT) from the 457 visa for all ‘specialists’ (persons with trade, technical and professional skills) in the WTO GATS Doha Round (World Trade Organisation General Agreement on Trade in Services). This same Australian offer is believed to be on the table in the many Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) currently being negotiated with individual countries or groupings”, said Dave Noonan,  CFMEU Assistant National Secretary.

Mr Noonan said that if these offers stay on the table and are incorporated into the final trade agreements, the Australian government will have a permanent and binding international obligation to:

Not require employers to first search for and prove no suitably qualified Australian workers were available, before granting 457 visas to temporary foreign workers covered by the trade agreements.
Grant 457 visas to temporary foreign workers regardless of the number of qualified Australian workers who are available to do the work, including unemployed workers.

“Australia’s temporary visa programs should not even be on the negotiating table in trade deals – these are properly domestic policy matters for the Australian Parliament. Is the Australian government aware of what’s at stake by offering to give up its sovereign right to impose obligations on employers to employ Australian workers first?”

Mr Noonan said the Howard government made the original Doha offer to remove LMT for all ‘specialists’ in 2005, and that the Labor governments failed to withdraw the offer between 2010-13.

“This should be a bipartisan policy position. The new Coalition government now has the opportunity to reconsider and rectify this situation with an early announcement that will support Australian jobs and still allow constructive trade deals to be negotiated.”

“Now is the right time to drop this excessive offer which no other developed country has been foolish enough to make. Unemployment is rising and forecast to reach 6.25% by mid-2014, youth unemployment is dire and worsening and labour force participation is falling as more Australians drop out of the job market altogether,” Mr Noonan said.