Australian Labor Party
Overview
This report is simply outrageous – ill-conceived and appallingly timed.
These proposals by a Government-controlled Committee will undermine the ability of Australians to get jobs.
Labor members of the Committee strenuously object to this report’s recommendations and findings which were made after a rushed inquiry without hearing adequate evidence and all points of view.
As the hangover from the deepest recession for many decades continues, across our nation:
over 1.3 million Australians are surviving on unemployment benefits
Two million Australians are searching for work or for more hours, and
JobKeeper is about to be scrapped by the Morrison Government pushing thousands more people onto unemployment queues.
Yet, astoundingly, while millions of Australians are searching for work, the priority for Government members is to put Australians at the back of the queue.
To be very clear, Labor members oppose the Government’s desire to:
“Streamline” (i.e. trash) Labour Market Testing, as doing so would reduce incentives for businesses to employ Australian workers
Scrap the requirement for employers to pay into the Skilling Australia Fund to train local workers when bringing in foreign labour, removing the price signal for business to train an Australian and make is virtually cost free to bring in foreign workers
Immediately expand the number of occupations on the skills shortage lists to include chefs, veterinarians, café and restaurant managers and seafarers and prioritise other occupations such as cooks, carpenters, electricians, hospitality, trades and manufacturing workers.
Reserve special seats on flights and places in quarantine for skilled migrants, abandoning over 40,000 stranded Australians.
You couldn’t make this stuff up. It would make sense if the report was released on April 1, but it’s not. Government MPs seriously think this is good policy. Shame on them for selling out Australian workers and those looking for a job.
Comments
Economic outlook
As a result of COVID-19, Australia will soon have an opportunity to do something we have never done before: restart a migration program. When we do, we must understand that migration is a key economic policy lever that can help or harm Australian workers during the economic recovery and beyond.
While the Australian economy is beginning to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the recovery is patchy, and many Australian families are still struggling. Wage growth is stagnant. Many Australian workers have gone years without a pay rise. Two million Australians are searching for work, or for more hours, and the Morrison Government’s cuts to JobKeeper are putting over a million workers and thousands of businesses at risk in every corner of the country.
Labor members are concerned that with less than a month until JobKeeper ends, the Morrison Government still doesn’t have a proper plan to create secure jobs with fair pay and to get wages growth moving again.
Further, the Prime Minister has stated that economic confidence will be “reinforced by the rollout of the vaccine program.” Yet, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is well behind schedule, and the Morrison Government will miss its own target to vaccinate 4 million Australians by the end of March by a margin of some 3.8 million people.
If implemented, the recommendations by Government members in this report would make it harder for Australians to get the skills and training they want and the secure jobs with fair pay they need. Government members are, in effect, recommending that the Morrison Government leave Australian working families behind.
Instead of the Prime Minister’s cuts to pay, cuts to super and his budget riddled with rorts, Australians need and deserve a government that is on their side, prioritising secure, well-paid jobs, with fair pay and conditions.
Economic facts
There are 2 million Australians without work or enough work, and Treasury expects another 100,000 Australians could lose their jobs when JobKeeper is cut at the end of March.
Unemployment is well above what it was before the pandemic, and the Government’s goal of 6 per cent unemployment is well above any reasonable estimate of full employment.
More than 1 million Australians are underemployed, and underemployment was at record highs even before the pandemic.
Wages growth has been at record lows for years under the Liberals and has recently fallen to new all-time lows at 1.4 per cent.
The number of Australians on unemployment payments (JobSeeker and Youth Allowance – Other) is over 1.37 million.
Under Labor, wages grew on average 3.6 per cent a year while under the Liberals wage growth has slowed to just 2.2 per cent a year - but the Liberals still want to cut the pay of Australian workers.
The vaccine rollout is already off track and the Morrison Government cannot assure Australians that it will meet the target of vaccinating everyone by October, with Health Department Secretary Professor Murphy telling the Senate Covid-19 Committee that it was now “impossible to predict” the timeline for the vaccine rollout.
Migration program
COVID-19 has closed our international borders. Effectively no new migrants are coming for the foreseeable future. Borders are likely to stay closed for many months to come.
Our economic recovery must help all Australians get back on their feet and to do that we need a migration program that helps Australian citizens, both those here in Australia who need secure jobs as well as those who are stranded overseas.
The Prime Minister promised Australians stranded overseas while borders remain closed that they would be home by Christmas. They were not – some 40,000 Australian citizens remain stranded.
The Prime Minister also promised stranded Aussies that they would be at the front of the queue, prioritised ahead international students and visa holders under the caps on international arrivals and quarantine spaces. In this report, the Government members are proposing the exact opposite of what the Prime Minister promised.
The fact that Government members are proposing to prioritise visa holders for businesses ahead of stranded Australians directly contradicts the Prime Minister’s promises. This is a cruel joke to play on our fellow citizens.
Government members are seriously proposing to prioritise skilled visa holders for scarce arrival flights and quarantine places while tens of thousands of Australians are desperately waiting for partner and parent visas to be reunited with their families.
Over one hundred thousand Australian families remain heartbreakingly separated from their loved ones while the borders are closed. Labor members are disappointed that Government members do not take seriously the heart-felt calls from Australian citizens to be reunited with their partners and their parents.
In terms of migration more broadly, Australia’s migration program has played a key role in our economic prosperity. However, under this 8-year-old Liberal Government, temporary migration had soared to historically high levels.
Wage theft and exploitation have become prevalent in industries that rely on temporary migrant workers, and now that same exploitation of workers is regrettably spreading through the wider economy, affecting Australian workers. The unrestrained growth in the number of temporary migrant workers combined with the Liberals’ cuts to traineeships and apprenticeships is contributing to unemployment, underemployment and low wage growth in certain sectors.
Labor members of the Committee believe the Government must make sure that Australians get a fair go and a first go at skills, training, and secure jobs with fair pay.
Labour market gaps have emerged while our borders have been shut. Instead of recommending that the Government identify skill shortages and deliver urgent training and re-skilling opportunities to Australian workers so they can fill those jobs, Government members are immediately turning to temporary migration. The government is turning their back on Australians seeking work, and disregarding all the known challenges of exploitation and wage theft.
Labor members are concerned that the Government members are enthusiastically rushing forward to expand the number of occupations on the skills shortage list for visa holders - in areas such as chefs, veterinarians, cafe managers, seafarers, motor mechanics, cooks, carpenters, electricians and other hospitality roles - without significant or thorough consideration for the impact that expansion would have on job opportunities for Australian workers.
Labor members of the Committee note that then Treasurer and now Prime Minister Scott Morrison never acted on the hefty Productivity Commission report on migration that was given to him in 2016. It still lays untouched. The Liberal Government has never responded to the report’s recommendations, including that Australia would be better served by a migration program that sourced higher-skilled, permanent workers. The report found that such a shift would add greater value and growth to the economy while also improving the budget bottom line.
This interim report by Government members does not seek to deliver these outcomes.
Australia is the most successful multicultural nation on earth. It can stay that way in a post-COVID-19 world, but only if our migration program adapts and responds to the current economic crisis, and support Australians to get back to work in secure, well-paid jobs.
Skills and training
Instead of continuing the task of building a strong and reliable system of vocational education, the Morrison Government has slashed funding to TAFE and training by $3 billion and underspent by another $1 billion, prior to the start of the pandemic.
The Prime Minister and his Government have let apprentice numbers fall by 140,000 and presided over a national shortage of tradies, apprentices and trainees. Australians need and deserves excellent TAFEs and universities, especially as our economy reopens after COVID-19.
The Prime Minister has spent eight years ignoring the vital role TAFE plays in the growth of our communities and young people – and the vital role it plays in the growth of our economy.
Too many Australians have either been locked out of quality TAFE training, or have lost confidence in the promise of vocational education. The consequences of this failure are felt right throughout Australia.
We’ve seen this government forsake casual workers under JobKeeper, showing their disregard for those working people. We know that skill development breaks down in poor quality jobs. Casual and part-time working people rarely get trained.
The Morrison Government has spent the COVID-19 crisis watching all this unfold and they have done nothing about it but make further cuts and costly mistakes.
Recommendations
At the end of March, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will leave hundreds of thousands of Australians behind by ending wage subsidies. Entire sectors, including tourism and hospitality, will be denied government support and job losses are inevitable.
Instead of prioritising Australian workers, the Government members of the Committee have put Australians at the back of the jobs queue.
The Labor members of the Committee believe Australian working families will benefit from more job security, better pay and a fairer industrial relations system. It means they can take leave when they’re sick or need to look after their loved ones, without putting their jobs at risk.
The Prime Minister has no plan for secure jobs – he just wants to cut people’s pay. These recommendations by Government members only reinforce that message. Insecure work has increased under the Morrison Government. This includes gig work which regularly sees people get paid below minimum wage in unsafe conditions. Labor want casual workers to have the same basic workplace rights that the rest of the workforce takes for granted.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee oppose the streamlining of Labour Marketing Testing or other exemptions for business that provide incentives to put Australian workers at the back of the jobs queue.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee oppose the proposed funding cuts to skills and training provided through funding to the Skilling Australia Fund.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee oppose any proposal to reserve places on flights and quarantine for skilled migrants, while 40,000 Australians remain stranded overseas.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee oppose recommendations to expand the number of occupations on the skills shortage lists that would impact employment opportunities for Australians. Especially Australians looking for jobs as chefs, veterinarians, cafe and restaurant managers, seafarer, civil engineers, electrical engineers, motor mechanics, cooks, carpenters, electricians and other roles in the hospitality, health, trades, agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee oppose recommendations that mandate prioritising visa processing for businesses ahead of the hundreds of thousands of partner and parent visa and citizenship applicants waiting for their applications to be considered.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee support transparency measures that allow all visa applicants to see where their visa application is in the ever-growing visa-application queue created by the Morrison Government.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee support measures that allow greater pathways to permanency for visa holders, noting that the interim report provides no advice on how greater permanency will be achieved by the Morrison Government.
Recommendation
Labor members of the Committee call on the Morrison Government to urgently respond to the Productivity Commission report on the Migrant Intake into Australia.
Ms Maria Vamvakinou MP
Deputy Chair
Senator Raff Ciccone
Committee Member
Mr Steve Georganas MP
Committee Member
Mr Julian Hill MP
Committee Member