Australian Senate Committee Denounces 457 Visas

There seems to be a great deal of anger and opposition to certain particular Australian visas--such as Seasonal Worker Program for Pacific Islanders, working holiday visas (417 and 462) and 457 visas for trained manpower--even as the Australian Senate Committee has reportedly proclaimed that there is widespread abuse of the impermanent overseas employees in the nation, who gain admission into the nation, through a chain of visa and immigration plans. As per the Senate Committee, this state is nothing less than a 'national disgrace.'

Significantly, since the last year, the Senate standing committee on education and employment has been collecting proof presented by impermanent labour force, unions, labour hire groups and firms. According to the Senate Committee, the situation warrants that several major improvements are made to the visa programmes.

Allegedly, there is a big danger that, by introducing tougher immigration checks to "protect workers from exploitation"; one can really make the situation worse for the aliens that one wishes to save from harm. Tougher immigration curbs tend to make it tougher for the outsiders to gain admission and stay in the country.

In the present state, immigrants may very well be even more averse to talk about any fears that they might have related to their working situations. More curbs could result in the opposite impact to what the Senate Committee are looking forward to. Reportedly, a probe recently completely surprised the agricultural industry and politicians when it exposed many labour recruitment groups accused of taking advantage of the manpower from abroad.

Additional reporting divulged the shoddy treatment of the Pacific Island workers, signed up under the Seasonal Worker Scheme. During 2015, the Fair Work ombudsman, the body that offers advice and details on the workplace rights that also keeps an eye on certain 457 subcategory visa arrangements as part of its responsibilities, portrayed how labour hire groups were rather 'elusive' even while they functioned like 'syndicated crime outfits.'

A report brought out by the Senate Committee includes 33 suggestions comprising one urging for more information to be generously accessible involving the figure of the provisional workers in Down Under, and also the volume of time they have been physically present in the nation.

While the same further supports a revamp of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration (MACSM). The Senate Committee is keen to witness the MACSM made more independent, get better, the Senate Committee also wants them to re-examine the nation’s working holiday visa plans. Through many hearings, senators frequently heard about labour hire groups taking advantage of employees by intimidating them with exile, lest they grumble about either income or working situations.