Australia tightens foreign worker visa requirements
SYDNEY: Australia will abolish a temporary work visa popular with foreigners and replace it with a new programme requiring better English-language and job skills, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday.
Mr Turnbull, who is struggling with poor voter approval ratings, rejected suggestions the policy change was in response to far-right political parties, like One Nation, who are demanding more nationalistic policies.
In a Facebook announcement, Mr Turnbull said: "Our reforms will have a simple focus: Australian jobs and Australian values."
Mr Turnbull said the visa change will attract better skilled workers and see Australians employed over cheap foreign workers brought in under the old 457 visa programme.
"We are an immigration nation, but the fact remains - Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs," he said. "We'll no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians."
The 457 visa was introduced in the 1990s to expedite the entry of business professionals and highly skilled migrants but over time, it was opened up to include a broad suite of workers.
The programme has become mired in controversy with allegations that the visa was being misused by employers to import workers on the cheap, rather then to fill genuine skill shortage.
"We are bringing the 457 visa class to an end. It's lost its credibility," Mr Turnbull said in Canberra.
Anyone now in Australia on a 457 visa will not be affected by the new arrangements.
The 457 visa, used by about 95,000 foreign workers, will be replaced by a new temporary visa and the list of occupations that qualify for a visa will be reduced from more than 200.
The new visa will be limited to a two-year period and a second four-year visa will require a higher standard of English language. From 1901 to around 1973, Australia restricted non-white immigration under a White Australia policy which required an English language test. - REUTERS
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