Media Release

KAP leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has slammed the Opposition Leader’s announcement today that the Labor Party will ‘crackdown’ on foreign workers should they gain power at the next election and toughen up regulatory infrastructure which will ‘level the playing field’ in the jobs market.

Mr Katter has been front and centre on the fly-in foreign worker issue, fighting to protect the Australian worker and their rights, but his screams have consistently fallen on deaf ears from both sides of Parliament. Both sides of politics have failed to deal with the guts the issue – reducing the numbers.

“You can introduce all the regulatory framework you like, but it will never address the drowning numbers of people coming into the country which have undermined the pay and conditions of the worker, as well as their family and kids who are all suffering.”

Mr Katter criticised the ALP’s proposition which includes targeting exploitive employers, creating a public register of the number of visa holders engaged by workplaces, extending the Fair Work Ombudsman’s regulatory powers as well as creating a platform for unions to commence civil actions for breaches to the Fair Work Act relating to visa work conditions.

Mr Katter said that whilst Mr Shorten’s attention to the critical issue is appreciated, it fails completely to deal with the problem.

“This country was going along fine with 38,000 Section 457 workers and a 100,000 student visas under John Howard.

“In spite of enormous pressure from the ACTU and the CFMEU who are fighting the good fight, this country is drowning in the deluge of people coming from countries with no democracy, no rule of law, no egalitarian traditions, no Judeo-Christian (love your neighbour, make the world a better place, love people that are different from you) beliefs, and probably as important as any, no industrial award system.

“These people have no concept of a fair pay for a fair day’s work and they undermine our workforce completely.

“I applaud the fact that Shorten is bringing it to attention, but it is not fair dinkum unless you deal with the current figures – that there 640,000 people coming in to this country with temporary visas. Under Howard, that number was 300,000 in temporary visas.”

Mr Katter said the ‘temporary’ visa was no security blanket and that once people arrive on a temporary visa, they never leave.

“If they get in legally, they are here forever and there is no way a country generating 200,000 jobs a year with 300,000 school leavers looking for work, can absorb 640,000 people who are almost all eligible for work.”

ENDS