Fast visas for foreign workers


OVERSEAS workers and the unemployed will be targeted to undertake the massive Queensland flood rebuilding program.

Visa approval will be sped up, to just five days, for temporary overseas workers if an employer is unable to find skilled local workers to do the job, Julia Gillard said.

Unions are unhappy with the speeding up of the ''457'' visa program, warning it could be used to drive down local wages and was ripe for exploitation.  


But business groups welcomed it as critical to preventing a skills shortage and wage pressure as Queensland rebuilds roads and rail, and competes with the mining industry for labour.

Construction unions have lobbied hard against the employer-sponsored visa category in the past, which they say has been abused in the building industry to bring in large numbers of low-paid Chinese workers in sham contracting scams.  

The ACTU president, Ged Kearney, said 457 visas should only be granted for Queensland projects where there was a genuine need. ''No one wants to see a return to the sorts of abuses we saw under the former Coalition government where unscrupulous employers were allowed to exploit overseas workers,'' Ms Kearney said.  

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary, David Oliver, said: ''We want to make sure we have the right checks and balances, and proper market rates are being paid.''      

But the Australian Industry Group chief executive, Heather Ridout, said speeding up visa approvals ''is the right call''. The move was also welcomed by the Business Council of Australia.  

The Labor government had moved to tighten the list of applicable 457 occupations in the wake of the financial crisis.

Ms Gillard said the flood recovery measures would also boost the ability of local jobseekers to fill vacancies on Queensland rebuilding projects. Expanding a relocation program for the unemployed from 2000 to 4000 places would ''get them to where the jobs are''.

Single job-seekers who have been out of work for three months will be paid up to $6000 in incentives, and families $9000, to move to a regional Queensland area to take a job. Flood areas would be added to the relocation priority list, and job-seekers willing to move for six months enlisted.

Lets face it mate.....Australia is under skilled and unable to provide the skilled labour to undertake major infrastructure projects, rebuild Queensland and sustain the growth driven by the mining boom.....Australia needs to poach skilled labour from poorer countries because we failed to adequately train our own youth over the last decade.....you reap what you sew.....skilled migrants are needed because business will not pay to train young Australians.....Heather Ridout should condemn the industries that caused this shortfall and the previous Howard government who cut training programs and CES job training!!!

philperth2010 wrote on Jan 28^th, 2011 at 10:14pm:




I didnt know the Howard govt cut training jobs.. phil when did they do that, seems a bizarre thing to do.. I mean would they cut back on training doctors..or scientists?..

I think crook need to change his outlook to be honest..he is so anti everything other than whats good for the unions..I often wonder how much he is paid..lol

Qld is going to be a huge test for skilled and unskilled labor..he should in my opinion be barracking for more skilled migration... we are going to need all the help we can get.. now WA is at the front of a massive cyclone.. and somethings building in Fiji that looks to be coming Qlds way..

also the vulcano will do mighty damage to our region over time.

the unions try to make this country insular to please themselves they like control.. I think you will find few skilled tradies belong to the unions...a lot are selfemployed today... mini rich people if you like.. an electrcian $80 to come to the door. yikies!

salad in wrote on Jan 28^th, 2011 at 9:15pm:



In this case more like the flood victims friend.

As long as this is used to provide a workforce where sufficient labour is not available I see little problem.

This does not appear to be like the situation which the Liberals sponsored where 457's were used to replace existing work forces as well as to undercut wages and conditions - bringing the third world to Australia.

It is set up to provide labour where it will be insufficient - the available labour in the region would be a major bottle neck to the required projects and would cause significant delays in service restoration and rebuilding processes.

No doubt there will be those who choose to exploit the situation the test will be how the government reacts to the inevitable abuses.

longweekend58 wrote on Jan 29^th, 2011 at 10:53am:



Seasonally adjusted it was 4.7% in 2006 and 4.5% in 2007 today it is 5% in a much more strained economy.