SKILLED migrants and foreign workers have made an important contribution to Australia's economic success in recent decades. They were welcomed by both sides of politics for the boost to productivity they delivered. Such workers continue a strong tradition in a nation that was built by waves of hard-working and skilled newcomers from all corners of the world. Against that background, the Gillard government's crackdown on temporary 457 visas, under pressure from trade union leaders, exposes the union movement's narrow, backward outlook and its disproportionate power over federal Labor.
As Michael Easson, chairman of the Ministerial Council on Skilled Migration and a former ACTU deputy president, wrote a fortnight ago, the much-maligned 457 visa program responds to the economic cycle. Its flexibility is what makes it efficient, placing workers directly in jobs they need, where local staff are not available.
While union leaders complain that the temporary 457 visa scheme has been exploited as an easy route to permanent residency, the 83,000 workers in Australia under the scheme comprise just 0.7 per cent of the workforce. Their presence has been vital to fill skill shortages, especially in the mining sector. Applications for the visas fell by 4.8 per cent in the six months to December 31. At a time when miners are racing to capitalise on demand for resources, "expunging" the enterprise migration agreements that help major resource projects fill vacancies, as union leaders want, would handicap our most productive industry. It would damage confidence, investment, growth, job creation and incomes as Nimrod resources chairman and former Queensland Labor treasurer Keith De Lacy warned yesterday. Such economic sabotage would be intolerable, and if the Gillard government is to retain a shred of credibility with business it must put the unions in their place.
Despite the unedifying, populist race to the bottom over population during the 2010 election campaign, the reality facing Australians is that as baby-boomers retire, the nation will face lower living standards without a larger, more productive population. We must think long and hard before turning away skilled, net-contributors to the Australian project, whatever the protectionists might say.
As Michael Easson, chairman of the Ministerial Council on Skilled Migration and a former ACTU deputy president, wrote a fortnight ago, the much-maligned 457 visa program responds to the economic cycle. Its flexibility is what makes it efficient, placing workers directly in jobs they need, where local staff are not available.
While union leaders complain that the temporary 457 visa scheme has been exploited as an easy route to permanent residency, the 83,000 workers in Australia under the scheme comprise just 0.7 per cent of the workforce. Their presence has been vital to fill skill shortages, especially in the mining sector. Applications for the visas fell by 4.8 per cent in the six months to December 31. At a time when miners are racing to capitalise on demand for resources, "expunging" the enterprise migration agreements that help major resource projects fill vacancies, as union leaders want, would handicap our most productive industry. It would damage confidence, investment, growth, job creation and incomes as Nimrod resources chairman and former Queensland Labor treasurer Keith De Lacy warned yesterday. Such economic sabotage would be intolerable, and if the Gillard government is to retain a shred of credibility with business it must put the unions in their place.
Despite the unedifying, populist race to the bottom over population during the 2010 election campaign, the reality facing Australians is that as baby-boomers retire, the nation will face lower living standards without a larger, more productive population. We must think long and hard before turning away skilled, net-contributors to the Australian project, whatever the protectionists might say.
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