Game Over 457 scam?
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Game Over 457 scam?
Scroll down to the list of removed occupations..
What new foreign worker visa rules mean
Malcolm Turnbull is abolishing the 457 visa program for skilled migrants. Here is a look at how the new replacement scheme will work and what the announcement means for those currently on a 457 visa.
• The new visa program will include requirements around work experience, English language proficiency and labour market testing.
• The new visa will include a short term two-year stream with a broad list of occupations reduced from the current list of more than 200.
• A second visa class, focused on strategic, long-term skills gaps will have a four-year limit and require a higher standard of English than the two-year visa.
• Both visas will require prior work experience.
‘Australian workers must have priority’
• Both visas will require a criminal record check, which is not currently required.
• The four-year visa would also require mandatory labour market testing in the majority of cases.
• The new two-year visa will not allow permanent residency.
• Anyone now in Australia on a 457 visa will not be affected by the new arrangements and will continue under their current conditions.
• The new scheme will require employers to advertise jobs before filling them with foreign workers.
• A fee of $1,150 will apply for the short term visa, while medium-term applicants will pay $2,400.
• A non-discriminatory workforce test to ensure employers are not actively discriminating against Australian workers.
• Strengthened requirement for employers to contribute to training Australian workers.
• The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will collect Tax File Numbers and data will be matched with the Australian Tax Office’s records.
Eligibility requirements for employer sponsored permanent skilled visas will be tightened.
• English language requirements will be stricter.
• A requirement for visa applicants to have at least three years’ work experience.
• Applicants must be under the maximum age requirement of 45 at the time of application.
• Employers must pay the Australian market salary rate and meet the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold set at $53,900 as at 12 April 2016.
Concessions for regional Australia will continue to be available:
• Employers in regional Australia will continue to have access to occupations under the temporary and permanent visas, to reflect their skills needs.
• Existing permanent visa concessions for regional Australia, such as waiving the nomination fee and providing age exemptions for certain occupations, will be retained.
• Consideration will be given to expanding the occupations in regional Australia that are exempt from the age requirement.
List of removed occupations
The Department of Immigration has published the list of jobs removed from the new visa regime. They include actors; pilots, butchers, flight attendents, futures traders; jockeys, public relations managers, radio journalists, web developers. Read the full list here.
The current 457 visa
There are currently 95,000 457 visa holders in Australia, Mr Turnbull said.
The Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) allows skilled workers to come to Australia and work for an approved business for up to four years, according to the border.gov.au site. Applicants must be sponsored by an approved business, but only if the business cannot find an Australian citizen to do the work. The visa holder can then work in Australia until the visa expires and travel in and out of Australia. If the visa holder ceases to be employed with the sponsor for more than 60 days the visa becomes invalid.
India has the highest number of workers granted 457 applications in 2016-17 to September 30 last year, followed by the UK and then China.
You can read the full 457 visa latest quarterly report here.
What Turnbull said
“The fact remains Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs ... We will no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians. The new visa will better target genuine skills shortages, including in regional Australia.”
Reaction
“Labor presided over a policy which got out-of-control by their own admission. What we are doing is making some significant changes in abolishing the program, but introducing a temporary skills shortage visa through two streams.” - Immigration Minister Peter Dutton
“They’ve been the government for four years. We’ve got 1.13 million people who are underemployed not getting enough hours of work. We’ve seen the scandals of 7-11 and other rip-offs of foreign visa workers and we’ve got a lot of Australians who say they would like to get work but instead it’s going to temporary foreign labour.” - Bill Shorten
Malcolm Turnbull is abolishing the 457 visa program for skilled migrants. Here is a look at how the new replacement scheme will work and what the announcement means for those currently on a 457 visa.
• The new visa program will include requirements around work experience, English language proficiency and labour market testing.
• The new visa will include a short term two-year stream with a broad list of occupations reduced from the current list of more than 200.
• A second visa class, focused on strategic, long-term skills gaps will have a four-year limit and require a higher standard of English than the two-year visa.
• Both visas will require prior work experience.
‘Australian workers must have priority’
• Both visas will require a criminal record check, which is not currently required.
• The four-year visa would also require mandatory labour market testing in the majority of cases.
• The new two-year visa will not allow permanent residency.
• Anyone now in Australia on a 457 visa will not be affected by the new arrangements and will continue under their current conditions.
• The new scheme will require employers to advertise jobs before filling them with foreign workers.
• A fee of $1,150 will apply for the short term visa, while medium-term applicants will pay $2,400.
• A non-discriminatory workforce test to ensure employers are not actively discriminating against Australian workers.
• Strengthened requirement for employers to contribute to training Australian workers.
• The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will collect Tax File Numbers and data will be matched with the Australian Tax Office’s records.
Eligibility requirements for employer sponsored permanent skilled visas will be tightened.
• English language requirements will be stricter.
• A requirement for visa applicants to have at least three years’ work experience.
• Applicants must be under the maximum age requirement of 45 at the time of application.
• Employers must pay the Australian market salary rate and meet the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold set at $53,900 as at 12 April 2016.
Concessions for regional Australia will continue to be available:
• Employers in regional Australia will continue to have access to occupations under the temporary and permanent visas, to reflect their skills needs.
• Existing permanent visa concessions for regional Australia, such as waiving the nomination fee and providing age exemptions for certain occupations, will be retained.
• Consideration will be given to expanding the occupations in regional Australia that are exempt from the age requirement.
List of removed occupations
The Department of Immigration has published the list of jobs removed from the new visa regime. They include actors; pilots, butchers, flight attendents, futures traders; jockeys, public relations managers, radio journalists, web developers. Read the full list here.
The current 457 visa
There are currently 95,000 457 visa holders in Australia, Mr Turnbull said.
The Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) allows skilled workers to come to Australia and work for an approved business for up to four years, according to the border.gov.au site. Applicants must be sponsored by an approved business, but only if the business cannot find an Australian citizen to do the work. The visa holder can then work in Australia until the visa expires and travel in and out of Australia. If the visa holder ceases to be employed with the sponsor for more than 60 days the visa becomes invalid.
India has the highest number of workers granted 457 applications in 2016-17 to September 30 last year, followed by the UK and then China.
You can read the full 457 visa latest quarterly report here.
What Turnbull said
“The fact remains Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs ... We will no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians. The new visa will better target genuine skills shortages, including in regional Australia.”
Reaction
“Labor presided over a policy which got out-of-control by their own admission. What we are doing is making some significant changes in abolishing the program, but introducing a temporary skills shortage visa through two streams.” - Immigration Minister Peter Dutton
“They’ve been the government for four years. We’ve got 1.13 million people who are underemployed not getting enough hours of work. We’ve seen the scandals of 7-11 and other rip-offs of foreign visa workers and we’ve got a lot of Australians who say they would like to get work but instead it’s going to temporary foreign labour.” - Bill Shorten
Thread Starter
Interesting stats..
Mr Turnbull said the Labor Party had been “Olympic champions” in the issuance of 457 visas. “Bill Shorten, the gold medal winner among them all,” Mr Turnbull said. “During his time the number of 457s increased by two-thirds during the last term of the Labor government, and less than 10 per cent of that increase went to the mining sector. So, this wasn’t about the mining boom and the need to bring in new skilled workers. These were people, working as labourers, working flipping burgers.’
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Bit of a beatup above when we are talking about probably not even 10 pilots.
Australia’s airlines were not immediately concerned with the announcement flight attendants and pilots would be among the professions axed from the list skilled migrants could apply for here.
QantasLink currently employs four pilots on 457 visas but Jetstar and Qantas have no other flight crew members on the visas.
Qantas spokesman Stephen Moynihan said the airline was recognised as an “employer of choice”.
“We work hard to recruit the best Australian talent and have only a handful of staff working on 457 visas out of 30,000 Qantas employees,” said Mr Moynihan.
Virgin Australia was also confident it would not be affected by the changes, and Tigerair was considering the announcement.
QantasLink currently employs four pilots on 457 visas but Jetstar and Qantas have no other flight crew members on the visas.
Qantas spokesman Stephen Moynihan said the airline was recognised as an “employer of choice”.
“We work hard to recruit the best Australian talent and have only a handful of staff working on 457 visas out of 30,000 Qantas employees,” said Mr Moynihan.
Virgin Australia was also confident it would not be affected by the changes, and Tigerair was considering the announcement.
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The occupations like 30 odd it IT where the majority of current 457 visas have been used (or abused) are still on the list, and there is almost no penalty for still employing them.
Its typical Turnbull, paying lip service to the people, then doing nothing but sitting on his hands.
More window dressing. It will have some direct impact on aviation, but across the job market as a whole, there are still any number of loopholes to be exploited, never mind the virtually unemployable that both Mal Turnstile and Billy Shortpants are hellbent on importing as refugees. If they were really serious about clamping down they would be taking a close look at the Indian and Chinese sites that promise to arrange visas in exchange for money, quite a lot of money in many cases. A good hard look within the Immigration dept wouldn't go amiss either, but of course that would open a whole can of worms and no-one wants that to happen on their watch. Gutless pricks!
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Both visas will require a criminal record check, which is not currently required.
It makes me wonder about how many drug dealers, ATM scammers, bitumen bandits, and other assorted scumbags, that our justice system, courts and jails are currently dealing with, have sneaked in on 457's.
One thing I'd like to know all about, is how we've gained the massive explosion in Chinese massage parlours in the last 10-15 years.
Most have to be fronts for various scams - from money laundering to drug dealing to sex trafficking - and if 457's are properly tightened, then about 2/3rds of the Chinese massage parlours would surely close?
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Really? This is news to me. So, just how many crims have we imported on 457 visas?
It makes me wonder about how many drug dealers, ATM scammers, bitumen bandits, and other assorted scumbags, that our justice system, courts and jails are currently dealing with, have sneaked in on 457's.
It makes me wonder about how many drug dealers, ATM scammers, bitumen bandits, and other assorted scumbags, that our justice system, courts and jails are currently dealing with, have sneaked in on 457's.
