When Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a crackdown on the 457 visa scheme, not a few people were left aghast.
Stakeholder organisations such as the Migration Institute, Business Council of Australia, Australian Industry Group, and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry called for the language to be toned down.
Analysts including Michael Pascoe and Bernard Keane excoriated the politicisation of the scheme. On cue, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott described the move as an 'assault on foreigners'.
There is dismay within the Labor caucus itself over the rhetoric, if not the policy. Two of the Government's own advisers on skilled immigration point out that the numbers of skilled migrants, the nature and location of their work, and the areas of skills shortage do not match the heightened rhetoric around 'queues'.
On the other hand, former One Nation MP Pauline Hanson says she 'totally agrees' with the Prime Minister.
At a glance, the Federal Government seems to have shot itself in the foot. Again.
To understand why Gillard is prosecuting the tightening of 457 visa rules so aggressively and exposing herself to claims of xenophobia, we only need look to her speech last month at the AWU national conference. She is not, she said, leader of a party called the 'Progressive', 'Moderate', or even 'Social Democratic Party', but of 'the party called the Labor Party deliberately'; 'that is where we come from, that is what we believe in, that is who we are'.
In other words, the Prime Minister is on a campaign to impress her party's blue-collar base. This campaign wasn't launched last month in Western Sydney; it was kick-started as far back as 2011 when she stated that the 'Australian Greens do not share Australian values'.
Under Gillard, Labor is shedding its angst over 'narrative' and identity by appealing to — or rather, appeasing — its 'traditional' members, many of whom have never been comfortable with the idea of foreign workers, whether outsourced or inbound. Whether it is going back to the future or merely going backwards, time will tell. It is certainly ceding whatever remains of its white-collar, progressive supporters to other parties and independents.
This much can be confirmed by Gillard's extraordinary attack on the IT industry as culprits in the overuse of the 457 visa. This attack doesn't bear scrutiny. Against the backdrop of inadequate software development training in high schools, underfunded universities, and an immature environment for venture capitalism, the number of domestic IT students in fact halved during the years from 2003–2010.
If this were a 'which came first' question, the PM has chosen the chicken. It seems like the wrong answer. It is certainly naïve to assume that Australian IT undergrads are naturally competitive in an industry that is plugged into the rest of the world. The international labour market ultimately arbitrates IT qualifications, not protectionist governments. This may well apply to most industries this century, as workplaces become more complex.
In any case, the miasma around the 457 visa can hardly dissipate while it is being actively pumped out. Labor supporters claiming that the language is not xenophobic must not have heard the trigger words, or may have fallen deaf from long-term overuse of 'queue' and 'foreign'. These seemingly innocuous words pack quite a message in combination. Throw in the word 'rort' — who cares if only two or three per cent exploit the system? — and we have a Pavlovian trifecta.
The reality is that the 457 visa has significant restrictions, including being applicable only to highly skilled workers. Nearly two thirds of visa holders have a university degree or a post-graduate qualification, belying fear-mongering in the trades sector. Moreover, migration has been shown to improve wages, according to Professor Peter McDonald, who is on the Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Immigration.
The scheme is not 'out of control' as Gillard claims. There are significant disincentives to employing foreign workers including cost, which suggests it is not a decision taken lightly. Employers are in fact monitored, with infringement notices rising from nine in the period 2010–2011 to 49 in 2011–2012 (out of 22,450 businesses).
Finally, according to the latest seasonally adjusted estimates by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there have been increases in full-time and part-time employment as well as workforce participation. The unemployment rate is remarkably low and steady, in contrast to other countries. It is hard to make a case that jobs are somehow being ripped from local workers when the economy is this healthy.
But all these facts do not matter. Confirmation bias against foreigners has been locked and loaded. How sadder would it be for Labor if it loses this year's election holding this smoking gun.
Fatima Measham is a Melbourne-based social commentator, and tweeter.