Whither the 457?

In a recent press release (http://bit.ly/46Mt0Q) Minister Evans announced a "big drop in temporary overseas workers".

I'm not 100% sure, but it looks as though he is happy about that fact. This leads me to ask a very obvious question: why?

I'm concerned that there's a general feeling that 457 visas (the visa for temporary overseas workers) are a bad thing. I'm not sure if this is unionism ("foreigners shouldn't be taking our jobs") or a reaction to terrorism ("close our borders to the jihadists") or what... but I'm almost certain it is not economism (is that a word?).

I've said it before and I'll say it again - our country needs migrants. Our economy is built on the backbone of migrants, and it will only continue to prosper if we keep supplementing it with overseas skilled (and unskilled) workers.

Every day I see clients (Australian businesses who, contrary to the popular belief, do employ Australians as well) who want to supplement their workforce, build their business and otherwise prosper, through the introduction of foreign workers. These workers have a number of useful benefits: they bring foreign skills (sometimes very different to Aussie skills), they plug gaps in a workplace, they bring a multicultural dimension to the workplace, and with the minimum salary level climbing, they are also pushing up the average wage.

So why is our government heralding this news that 457 visas grants have gone down? Is it because they are bowing to uninformed public pressure? Trying to be seen to be making a difference? I'm not sure, but it certainly doesn't get my approval!

And now I've just finished reading the explanatory memorandum of the September 14 changes to the 457 visa (http://bit.ly/14gukH). Wow, let's make it even harder!

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to open the borders and shut down control, but I don't think Australia can afford to make it too difficult for people to come and work here. The world is increasingly competitive for skilled labour so why scare people off with overly complex and unnecessarily harsh regulations - effectively we're simply doing Canada, the UK and others a big favour by sending skilled workers their way.

So what should we do? Well I think we need to strip back the 457 and focus on addressing the needs of employers and the ability of applicants to fill those needs. Keep it simple...

What do you think?