Kelvin Thomson: Enterprise Migration Agreements a confession of failure

"More than 50% of the people who come here under the permanent migration program end up in either Sydney or Melbourne competing with unemployed Australians for work." "If we go down the path of enterprise migration agreements, we will end up with a situation where we have foreign companies, using foreign workforces to send our resources in foreign ships to foreign countries for the use and enjoyment of foreign customers." "I'm supportive of the idea of the jobs board." "These projects will be built. If this takes another year or two, then, frankly, so what? "I am...confident that these resource projects will proceed and that labour resources are there provided Gina Rinehart and others are prepared to pay people appropriate rates ... and... training..." (Kelvin Thomson)

Transcript of Kelvin Thomson video on Enterprise Migration Agreements

KELVIN THOMSON: I wanted to talk this morning about Enterprise Migration Agreements. I do not support Enterprise Migration Agreements.

In the first instance, they are a confession of failure in regard to our permanent migrant worker program. Since the mid 1990s the permanent migrant worker program has been multiplied by more than five times."

This program is supposed to be meeting the needs of the mining boom. It is not doing that. In fact more than 50% of the people who come here under the permanent migration program end up in either Sydney or Melbourne competing with unemployed Australians for work.

If the permanent migrant worker program was successful, why is it that we turn to temporary migrant worker programs such as this one? The permanent migrant worker program should be properly targeted to meet the kind of needs that are being expressed here.

Secondly, if we go down the path of enterprise migration agreements, we will end up with a situation where we have foreign companies, using foreign workforces to send our resources in foreign ships to foreign countries for the use and enjoyment of foreign customers.

Now, this may be the idea of some people about how we spread the benefits of the mining boom but it's not my idea. If this is in the national interest I'll go hee for tiggy.[1]

The third issue is that Enterprise Migration Agreements come at the expense of indigenous Australians. We've seen recently a debate between Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, where Andrew Forrest has said he wants to employ indigenous Austrlaians on mining projects. Gina Reinhart wants to bring in foreign workers. Andrew Forrest is right. Gina Reinhart is wrong. But, if we go down the path of enterprise migration agreements, we'll get the Gina Reinhart outcome at the expense of indigenous Australians. Under her proposal we're getting 1700 migrant workers and 100 aboriginal jobs. It should be the other way round.

High immigration undermines local training programs

JOURNALIST: Government is responsible for training. Isn't the situation where people are saying, I've got this massive project to build, construct or operate, but I don't have anyone to build it. Where is the government with in terms of the training of people like indigenous people you talk about?

KELVIN THOMSON: Well the government is engaged in training programs but it seems to me that the objective of these training programs is undermined if you bring in workers from outside. If we don't bring in workers from outside, we will have the training that people like Andrew Forrest say we need, and we will get outcomes in which indigenous Australians and other Australians get the jobs.

JOURNALIST: Isn't the issue that it needs to be built now and there isn't anyone to build it?

Mining Projects: Where's the fire?

KELVIN THOMSON: When you say it needs to be built now, I think that this suggests a lack of faith in market forces. If we pay people enough they will come, and these projects will be built. If this takes another year or two, then, frankly, so what? These resources have been here for hundreds of thousands of years. All the historical evidence suggests that they will increase in value over time and that they will be worth more to Australians over time than they are now. I am highly confident that these resource projects will proceed and that labour resources are there provided Gina Rinehart and others are prepared to pay people appropriate rates to experience the hardships of the Pilbara and prepared to engage in the training of indigenous Australians and other Australians so that they can do the jobs that are needed.
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I think that the government should not proceed with the Enterprise Migration Agreement. I think that we should be putting the effort into training and skilling Australian workers, particularly in this instance, indigenous Australian workers.

Australia's immigration program far too large overall

...It's been my view for quite some time that both our permanent migrant worker program and our temporary migrant worker programs are too large and I think that what we're seeing here is effectively a confession of failure that the permanent migrant worker program is not delivering the outcomes that it's supposed to.

JOURNALIST: It's been said that the Prime Minister insisted on this "jobs board"[2]as a condition of the EBA. Why aren't you convinced that the Prime Minister's idea of the jobs board will protect Australian workers will ensure Australian workers are involved?

KELVIN THOMSON: I'm supportive of the idea of the jobs board. Indeed, I mentioned it in a speech in parliament over a year ago when I talked about issues to do with skilled migration and the fact that the manufacturing worker's union had set up their own skills register and were proposing the idea of a jobs board which I think it a good idea. I'm certainly of the view that it is a good idea, but unions are saying that there are abuses in relation to the temporary migrant worker programs, the 457 visa programs, and that they are not able to achieve an outcome where those workers are being payed in the same way that Australian workers are being payed. I had one union leader mention to me a case in the Pilbara where his advice is that Chinese workers are being payed 50 to 60 per cent of the Australian rate that he has raised it with the relevant officials but has not been able to get a satisfactory outcome. So people are concerned that if we have the migrant workers being brought in that they will be exploited. There have been many examples of 457 visas being exploited.

JOURNALIST: Do you have people in your electorate or people you know just generally who would love to be able to go and work on Gina Rinehart's project at a fly-in fly-out rate?

Australian workers displaced by foreign workers imported by companies

KELVIN THOMSON: I think that if people are payed appropriate wages and given appropriate training they will come. I've certainly had people in my electorate contacting me to say that they are interested in getting work in particular industries like IT, but in fact are not able to get that work because companies are bringing in people, either under the permanent worker program or the temporary worker program, at their expense.

NOTES

Headings supplied by Candobetter Editor.

[1] * hee for tiggy = an old expression, now sadly fading from the Australian lexicon, rooted in the childhood game of "chasey" also known as "tiggy-touchwood", abbreviated to "tiggy". If you were tigged - or touched - you were deemed to be "hee" and became the chaser. Obviously, to say that you would go hee voluntarily means that you're so sure of your argument that the dire possibility would never arise. Source of explanation was http://iamdoghearmesnore.blogspot.com.au/2009/03/yes-we-can-plagiarise.html

[2] Julia Gillard has promised no Australian worker will miss out on a job as a result of the Federal Government's decision to allow mining magnate Gina Rinehart to import more than 1700 workers for an iron ore project in Western Australia."Companies won't be able to bring in foreign workers if there is an Australian ready, able and willing to do the work on the jobs board," the Prime Minister said in Melbourne this afternoon.‘‘We will have a jobs board which will be a way for Aussies to know what’s happening in the resources sector and what the jobs are,’’ Ms Gillard said. Source: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/no-aussie-job-will-go-overseas-insists-gillard-20120526-1zbeg.html