Asia-Pacific labour mobility and the two track labour market

John Sutton is National Secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU). The following opinion piece is a revised version of his address to the Catalyst Seminar held in Sydney, 6 May 2008, by Catalyst Australia, a new labour movement think-tank. Here he presents evidence showing that the current (allegedly skilled) temporary migration scheme under the 457 visa is often abused and voices serous concerns about extending temporary labour migration to workers openly acknowledged to be low skilled. His address was delivered before the Rudd Government announced its record increase in the permanent migration program and before it floated the idea of importing unskilled guest workers from the Asia/Pacific region. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s