Many IT professionals are being hired from overseas.

Professor Lesleyanne Hawthorne has analysed eight years of statistics from the 457 visa system and told news.com.au there were definitely cases of it being rorted.

While the professor of international workforce at the University of Melbourne said she saw clear benefits to the system, there was a need for reform.

“I am really supportive of the need for change,” she said.

“In a variety of fields, people have been brought in with almost no labour market testing to do work local people obviously could do.”

The Turnbull Government announced this week the 457 visa system would be replaced with a temporary skills shortage visa, saying the previous skills list was “laughable” and the system was being abused.

Particularly for low skill jobs in industries like hospitality and aged care, Prof Hawthorne said Australia was bringing in people from overseas to fill positions, even though local people could be trained in a relatively short time to do these jobs.

“It’s extremely hard to believe that there are no unemployed or employable people in Australia eligible and able to do the work, or who could do the work if they completed a short training course,” she said.

“It’s very clear from multiple reports in the last couple of years that in some sectors ... like abattoirs, convenience shops and agriculture harvesting, temporary migrants are doing very basic work and being exploited in various different ways such as getting inferior payments, and terms and conditions.

“If you have a low level of English, you are vulnerable to being exploited and if you hope that your employer will sponsor you for permanent residency, this makes you more compliant to accepting poor terms and conditions.

“These things must be addressed.”

At its best, Prof Hawthorne said 457 visas helped to get professionals working in locations that were not attractive to Australians, helping to get doctors into regional areas for example, and was quick and efficient compared to permanent skilled migration.

It had also worked well in some areas to fill skill gaps temporarily until local residents could be trained.

Statistics showed that in occupations such as nursing, engineering and accounting, large numbers of professionals had arrived in Australia on 457 visas five years ago but applications had dropped in recent years once more locals were trained.

For example, Prof Hawthorne said 3192 nurses entered Australia on a 457 visa in 2011-12, but this dropped dramatically to just over 1066 in 2015-16.

It was a similar story for engineers, which dropped from 5388 to 1097.

But the numbers had dropped much more slowly in other professions.

Prof Hawthorne gave the example of IT, where numbers fell from 9271 to 8923 across five years, but had actually increased slightly from 8604 in 2012-13.

“This is a concern as we are training a lot of people in IT and they really want to work,” Prof Hawthorne said.

Software and application programmers were the top occupation for 457 visas granted since 2014 according to Department of Immigration data, followed by doctors, cooks and ICT business and systems analysts.

Prof Hawthorne said the IT example showed what could happen when employers were given the right to pick and choose.

“If you interview employers, they might say they are not looking for new graduates, the people they are looking for have seven years of experience and very specific skills.

“If they get to pick globally, they might get someone from the UK or Silicon Valley who might be exactly right for their needs.

“But this is an issue of debate as so many students are entering the industry and want to get experience so they can be that person seven years on.”

Prof Hawthorne said this raised the question of whether there should be a cap on visas to preserve some jobs for local people who had recently trained.

“That’s the challenge of course, if you have a lot of new graduates who can’t get entry level jobs, they won’t be able to get to that level by the time they’re 30 or 40 years old.”

Prof Hawthorne also pointed to a paper published by Monash University population expert Dr Bob Birrell in December that raised concerns about IT companies bringing in people who were categorised as having lower skills than they actually did.

“They were being paid lower wages when their skill set was actually quite high,” she said.

While some people have questioned whether the crackdown is racist, Prof Hawthorne said she did not think changes to the 457 visa scheme were due to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s influence.

“Australia is by no means alone in this ... this is a global trend,” she said. “In the US, Donald Trump announced similar changes this week, Canada made major changes a few years ago making their program smaller and more difficult to stay on, and the UK has also innovated in this area,” she said.

“A lot of countries comparable to Australia have made similar refinements.”

Prof Hawthorne also notes that nine of the top 15 source countries for 457 visa workers are English speaking background countries (such as the UK, Ireland, USA, and Canada), or European countries (such as France, Germany and Italy) rather than Asia.

Cafe workers from overseas may no longer be able to become permanent residents in Australia. Picture: Angelo Soulas.Source:News Corp Australia

When it comes to Australia’s reforms, Prof Hawthorne said she wanted to see more detail before determining whether they would be effective.

“The four-year elite temporary visa category seems similar to how the 457 visa program operated in the past, the main difference is there will be double the fee, so employers will pay more to sponsor workers.”

Changes to labour market testing may also be significant.

In recent years, Prof Hawthorne said she’d heard reports of employers getting around the current test by doing things like advertising jobs internally for a few weeks before choosing to hire from overseas.

“Current labour market testing is clearly not appropriate and needs to be tidied up thoroughly,” she said.

“Will people be able to make blanket statements that they can’t get local workers? Or will they have to provide detail about who they interviewed, how long jobs were advertised and where they were advertised?”

The requirements for labour market testing would also be important because even demand for some of the professions remaining on the new medium and long-term stream are arguable.

“Accountants are on the list and many would say there is an oversupply of accountants in Australia,” she said. “Most health fields are also lobbying to bring in fewer foreign workers, it’s complicated and labour market testing will be critical.”

The government has indicated labour market testing will be applied to all occupations regularly, even those still included on lists for the two new schemes, and Prof Hawthorne said this could have a big impact if done well.

“For example, if medicine stays on the medium and long term list, it will be business as usual,” she said.

“But if it comes off, it will be a complete game changer in that field.”

HOW THE NEW SYSTEM WILL WORK

The 457 visa system will be dropped and replaced with a short term skilled shortage visa that covers two years, and a medium term visa valid for four years.

The two-year visa may be renewed for another two years but after that the worker must leave the country. They can apply for another visa from overseas but this blocks them from becoming a permanent resident.

In the past 457s were renewed after the four years was up so holders often ended up becoming permanent migrants.

Now only 167 professions will be eligible for the four-year visa, while 268 professions can apply for a two-year visa.

There were 216 eligible occupations removed entirely from the visa system.

Applicants will also have to be competent English speakers and undergo a criminal check.

The short term list will be reviewed every six months and the medium term list every year.

Employers will also have to conduct mandatory labour market testing.

Currently there are 94,890 primary 457 visa holders in Australia but they won’t be impacted by the changes.

Many IT workers in Australia come from overseas.Source:Supplied

TOP SOURCE COUNTRIES FOR 457 VISAS IN PAST EIGHT YEARS

1. UK

2. India

3. Ireland

4. USA

5. Philippines

6. China

7. Canada

8. South Africa

9. France

10. Germany

11. Italy

12. Malaysia

13. Japan

14. South Korea

15. Netherlands

Email: charis.chang@news.com.au | Twitter: @charischang2