Australia to Abolish Work Visa Popular with Foreigners

Turnbull (left) speaks as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton listens on during a media conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on April 18 — AAP photo.

 

Canberra, 21 Rajab 1438/18 April 2017 (MINA) – Australia will abolish a temporary work visa popular with foreigners and replace it with a new programme requiring better English-language and job skills, asiancorrespondent.com quoted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as saying on Tuesday.

Turnbull, who is struggling with poor voter approval ratings, rejected suggestions the visa policy change was in response to far-right wing political parties, such as One Nation, demanding more nationalistic policies.

But in a Facebook announcement, Turnbull said: “Our reforms will have a simple focus – Australian jobs and Australian values.”

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Turnbull said the visa change would attract better-skilled workers and see Australians employed over cheap foreign workers brought in under the old 457 visa programme.

“We’ll no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians,” he said.

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 the visa was being misused by employers to import workers on the cheap, not to fill genuine skill shortage.

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“We are bringing the 457 visa class to an end. It has lost its credibility,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.

Anyone now in Australia on a 457 visa will not be affected by the new arrangements.

The 457 visa, now used by about 95,000 foreign workers, will be replaced by a new temporary visa. 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. (T/RS5/RS1)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency )MINA)