http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/article/16370198/pm-accused-of-using-rubbery...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is being accused of using rubbery figures to justify her call for a crackdown on 457 visa rorts.

Today Ms Gillard told a union conference that temporary overseas work was growing faster than employment.

She said temporary overseas worker numbers were up 20 per cent compared with the same time last year, whereas employment growth for the period was only 1 per cent.

But demographer and government adviser Peter McDonald has told 7.30 the statement does not bear scrutiny.

He says that is because the retirement of baby boomers means Australia starts each year 140,000 workers short.

"If the labour force grows by 1 per cent as the Prime Minister says, that's about 120,000 [people]," he said.

"So we take the 120,000 growth, 140,000 we have to make up, [making a] combined 260,000 new workers that we have to get into the labour force, and 457s make up about 40,000 of that."

Ms Gillard also told the union summit it was unacceptable that too many temporary overseas workers were filling health and information technology jobs and that local workers were missing out.

She said tighter requirements on visa applicants and employers would address that.

"It's just not acceptable that information technology jobs, the quintessential jobs of the future, the very opportunities being created by the digital economy ... that such an area as this should be such an area of imported skills," she told the summit.

But experts in both migration and computing have told 7.30 there is an information technology skills shortage.

Migration Institute of Australia chief executive Maureen Horder says IT is still a growth area.

"That's one of the growth areas, Technology. So it's not surprising that we would be looking to broaden the skill base in Australia in that particular sector," she said.

Australian Computer Society figures show since 2003, the number of jobs in IT has grown by 100,000, or 31 per cent, with 12,000 new jobs created last year.

But figures show from 2003 to 2010 the number of domestic Information and Communication Technology students halved, from 9,093 to 4,293.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has continued to support the Government's moves to tighten the rules on 457 visas.

"I know there's a lot of people out there who want to turn this around into just being a migration issue," said ACTU secretary Dave Oliver.

"It is not. This is about an employment issue.

"This is an issue which is about opportunity.

"It's opportunity for local workers to be employed, it's opportunity for existing workers to be trained up."

this 457 crap is utter bs.

So is Dullard governing or electioneering on this matter. Or just dog whistling.

Without a doubt shes as dumb as dog sh1t.

Eevryone knows the 457 is a scam.  Ive seen plenty of them over the years and they are rarely used for the purpose intended.

As usual, the unions are talking rubbish and Gillard is only too happy to cart it away for them and sell it to the public.

"It's opportunity for local workers to be employed, it's opportunity for existing workers to be trained up."

They live in a dream world where a 53 year old redundant fitter can be turned into a skilled IT professional.

adelcrow wrote on Mar 15^th, 2013 at 2:36pm:


what are you talking about adel

Maqqa wrote on Mar 15^th, 2013 at 2:55pm:


Go to the big meatworks in Murray Bridge, Naracoorte, Bordertown and Port Wakefield and ask them how many of their unskilled and semi skilled workers are here on 457 visas.
Is Tony Abbott saying its beyond us to train our own people to work in these sorts of jobs?

Maqqa wrote on Mar 15^th, 2013 at 3:16pm:


Well...its quite obvious that they are bringing in overseas workers while there are many thousands of Aussies capable of doing the work. So its abuse of the 457 visa system...Or do you think its beyond the average Aussie to pack meat or learn how to shoot a bolt into a sheep or Bulls head?

Maqqa wrote on Mar 15^th, 2013 at 2:55pm:


Honestly Maqqa..if you're half the successful business man you claim to be then you already know about the rampant abuse of the 457 visa scheme across the country. So you're either just playing dumb or you're completely ignorant.