23 February 2018
The Trade Minister is either mistaken about the impact of his own pet project or he has been incorrectly briefed by his department, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus has said.
Mr Ciobo incorrectly assured the nation on ABC Radio that only intra-corporate transferees in high-level professions were allowed to work in Australia under the deal.
His assurances appeared ignorant of the sections of Annex 12-A dealing with contractual service suppliers and installers/maintainers, which cover a much wider range of circumstances and occupations.
These sections allow people from Mexico, Chile, Japan, Canada, Malaysia and Vietnam in any of the more than 400 professions on the temporary skills shortage list to be hired without employers first advertising jobs in Australia.
The Turnbull Government’s own explanatory materials on the visa schemes it has introduced to replace 457 visas explicitly states that no labour market testing will be provided in the event that a trade deal allows people to be brought over.
Ms McManus called on Mr Ciobo to immediately retract and correct his statements and to release the text of any side letters to the agreement that have yet to be made public.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:
The Trade Minister is either mistaken about the impact of his own pet project or he has been incorrectly briefed by his department, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus has said.
Mr Ciobo incorrectly assured the nation on ABC Radio that only intra-corporate transferees in high-level professions were allowed to work in Australia under the deal.
His assurances appeared ignorant of the sections of Annex 12-A dealing with contractual service suppliers and installers/maintainers, which cover a much wider range of circumstances and occupations.
These sections allow people from Mexico, Chile, Japan, Canada, Malaysia and Vietnam in any of the more than 400 professions on the temporary skills shortage list to be hired without employers first advertising jobs in Australia.
The Turnbull Government’s own explanatory materials on the visa schemes it has introduced to replace 457 visas explicitly states that no labour market testing will be provided in the event that a trade deal allows people to be brought over.
Ms McManus called on Mr Ciobo to immediately retract and correct his statements and to release the text of any side letters to the agreement that have yet to be made public.
Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:
- “The Minister is either ignorant of the impact of his own trade deal, has received bad advice, or is trying to deceive the public.”
- “DFAT confirmed to the ACTU last year that the contractual service suppliers provisions of Annex 12-A have the effect of allowing companies to bring to Australia people from those six countries in any of the professions on the skills shortage list without having to advertise jobs here first.
- “There are now 435 occupations on the skilled shortage list. It includes cooks, hairdressers, bakers, barristers, roof tilers, property managers, nurses and carpenters.
- “It is very hard to believe that we cannot find anyone in Australia who will do this work.
- “I call on the Minister to immediately retract and clarify his public statements and to correct the record.
- “He must also release any side letters to the deal that are still being kept from the public.”
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