Figures show foreign worker visas rising

Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor says 457 visa applications have increased 10 per cent. Source: AAP

NEW figures show a recent surge in 457 visa applications that justifies the federal government's planned crackdown on rorts, Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor says.

But the opposition says the government's figures show the increase was confined to the Christmas period and do not point to evidence the system is being rorted.

Mr O'Connor said the numbers support the government's decision to take action to close loopholes in the 457 program and ensure local jobseekers are not disadvantaged by unscrupulous employers bringing in temporary foreign workers.

"These January figures show that after the traditional December lull, 457s have continued to increase," he said on Saturday.

"At January 31, there were more than 105,000 people in Australia working on temporary 457 visas. That is an increase of 22.4 per cent compared to January 2012."

Mr O'Connor said he was concerned the growth in applications and granting of 457 visas were outstripping the total employment growth rate by a "very significant" margin.

"That says to me that there are now more 457 applications coming in where there are not demonstrable skill shortages," he said.

Mr O'Connor said the overall trend was clear - more people were coming in on temporary skilled worker visas at a time when the unemployment rate was flat, not falling.

That was particularly so in the IT industry, where 457 visas had increased by 68 per cent while vacancies for local IT workers were decreasing.

The 457 visa scheme was introduced in 1996 to allow local business to fill skills shortages with overseas workers able to stay for up to four years, who were also entitled to bring their families and travel in and out of Australia as often as they wanted.

Unions have long objected to the scheme but the opposition backs it as an effective means of filling skill vacancies when there aren't enough Australian workers.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the figures prove nothing other than that Labor had handed out more 457 visas than any other government.

Mr Morrison said the figures jumped from December to January because it was Christmas.

"To suggest there are rorts because more visas have been handed out is like suggesting there is a drought because the sun is shining. One is not evidence of the other," he told AAP.

"All I have called for in the wake of the government's announcement is to produce the report of the inquiry or the investigation conducted by the department that demonstrates the widespread rorting and abuse that the government claims, and that is absent."

Mr Morrison said this was just another desperate and cynical attempt to distract attention from the government's failure on border control.

"The prime minister should stop attacking skilled migrants who come the right because she can't stop people coming in boats the wrong way," he said.

"The unions have always said they don't like 457 visas and now the government is parroting the union line."

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