The Labor Party is keen to change it to reinstate the requirement for skill mean testing so the system would not be, according them, “rotted”. While the Unions are very welcoming about this policy change, it is not so much with employers who claimed that it would make employing foreign workers harder and “does not meet the labour market needs”. As missiles were shot all over the place, especially with Don Randall, a Liberal MP said the policy as racist, I can’t help but think, is that so?
As a migrant myself, I look at the situation from a different point of view. While the 457 Visa gives foreign workers are way to come to Australia, are we doing it in the right way? Certainly, there might be skill sets and expertise that are not available, especially when we talk about high level positions or highly specialised professions, but for example, is it really that hard to find, for example a baker for a bakery that operates by Mr Randall? I don’t want to sound sarcastic or anything, but with hundreds of people trying out Masterchef every year, and now a new reality series just about baking, is it really that hard to find a local baker to do the baking for Mr Randall? Or is it actually just cheaper to hire one from Vietnam (as he did) and lower the overhead? Is Mr Randall really passionate about the diversity of the Australian society or he is more passionate about more bread at a lower cost?
What really bugs me about Mr Randall’s comment is his using
of racism as an attack to the bill. I mean seriously? Certainly now even in the
Parliament there is a reflection of cultural diversity with Penny Wong becoming
the sore in the eyes for a lot of Liberal MPs, so how is a policy that helps
the ethnically diversed Australian workforce racist? The thing is, in case Mr Randall does not
know, Australia, I mean modern Australia, not the one Mr Randall might have
grown up in, is made up by a huge diversity of ethnicities. So can I ask Mr
Randall how in the world that a policy aiming to protect this huge diversity of
people in Australia be considered as racist? I am Australian and I don’t think
it is racist. If Mr Randall thinks that by throwing this out he is doing his
"White Man Duty" to protect the minorities, maybe it is a bit 20 years too late.
As some said the policy is xenophobic, maybe it is from a
certain angle, but then the policy change is not about shutting out people from
Australia but to ensure that employers source for suitable candidates within
the country first before going external. This applies to a lot of companies
that usually open up new positions internally first before going out to
external recruitment when a candidate for the position could not be found. So
from this angle, I don’t see how the policy is xenophobic. With projected unemployment
rate hitting 6% in Australia soon, isn’t it the Government’s duty to protect
the Australian workforce? If you look at other countries in the world, you
might understand that working overseas, for example in the States is not as
easy as you think either. So why should Australia give employers who only want
to import cheap workers a free ride?
How the whole saga would unfold is still yet to be seen but
I personally do think that if a policy is about promoting fairness to the
people that a Government is responsible for, then people should put away their
personal agenda, be it to just say no to a cabinet he doesn’t like or just felt
that he would be gravely affected, to support that is something generally good
for the Australian society. Then again, as I usually do, do these politicians
actually care about the Australian public? Or they care more about their own
jobs and financial security?
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