Media Release

KAP Federal Leader and Member for Kennedy Bob Katter will today move to put some reality into proposed government laws aimed at keeping mining and other jobs for Australians instead of foreign workers.

After being thrown out of Question Time last month for his strident objections over 457 visa fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) foreign workers, Mr Katter is today set to introduce to the House of Representatives amendments to the Migration Amendment (Temporary Sponsored Visas) Bill 2013.

The KAP amendments aim to increase the scope of employment streams requiring testing of the Australian jobs market prior to the employment of foreign workers (by removing an exemption for skilled workers); cap the annual 457 visa intake at 6000; and establish a register of 457 visa sponsor employers, including their number of foreign workers and the positions occupied.

Mr Katter said the proliferation of 457 visa workers – including an average of 38,000 a year under the former LNP government, which has skyrocketed some 300 per cent under the ALP to more than 125,000 last year alone – was less to do with being unable to find an Aussie for the job and all about undermining our hard-fought award wages.

“Whichever way you look at it, since 1996 that’s almost a million jobs that we’ve handed on a silver platter to foreign workers that should have gone to hard-working Australians,” said Mr Katter.

“And that’s a slap in the face to some 1.35 million Australians who are desperately seeking full-time work – particularly those from cities in the West Australian electorate of Brand who have the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 25 per cent, but whose local MP signed off as Minister on the deal for a WA mining magnate to fly in 1700 unskilled foreign workers for her multi-billion-dollar resources project.

“The day after she made her unpleasant statement on foreign FIFO workers, 12 Army-trained tradesmen told me each of them had been applying for a start in the mines for over six months.

“And, given the amount of farms on the chopping block, the sons and daughters of farmers and the farmers themselves would be gone without these mining jobs.

“However, individual businesses should not be criticised for resorting to 457 visa foreign workers – they are a cheap and easy short-term solution.

“But this issue is about the long-term greater good for the Australian nation. It’s about longevity and ensuring a fair and sustainable future for Australia’s working people.”

Mr Katter said the issue of foreign workers at the expense of Aussie jobs would remain a key issue for Katter’s Australian Party should the KAP be delivered power in the Senate after the September 14 election.

“We will give them hell unless and until the number of 457 visa grants are reduced to a number closer to 6000 a year, rather than the ALP’s 125,000. And as a party, we will continue to be on the picket lines, waving our Australian and Eureka flags in protest of the importation of foreign fly-ins.”