back to article Australia scraps temporary visas for skilled workers

Australia will scrap its visas for skilled temporary workers. Government data on “457 visas” shows that 24,270 have been granted between July 1st, 2016 and December 31st of that year. That number puts Australia on target to match the typical quantity of such visas issued in recent years, which since 2005 have seen more than 50 …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Intetesting

    I didn't realise Australia had a tech industry.

    1. frank ly

      Re: Intetesting

      I didn't realise there were people who made spelling mistakes in one-word titles and then failed to notice and correct them.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Intetesting

        Hopefully this is a one off, and El Reg doesn't become a favored destination of people who post "Frist Post!" on every Slashdot story (or used to, I haven't visited that site in years)

  2. Sampler

    Ah Bum!

    Companies just merged with another so re-set my two year for applying for PR (and meaning my third 457 in just under four years whilst working with the same people for technically three companies = ( ).

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Visa?

    Why not go with a Diner's Club, Discover, Master Card, or other issuer instead?

    *Runs away before someone smacks me with a bag full of plastic*

    1. LaeMing
      Coat

      Re: Visa?

      Because they only scrapped 457 of them, there are plenty left.

      *Wait for meeeeeee*

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd like to see some job descriptions of tech jobs where 457's have been used. I'd like to know exactly what roles they'd have us believe that we don't have on-shore skills for.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I once had the pleasure of working with a 457 "REST Integration Expert" that a certain consultancy flew out of the sub-continent. The only issue was when he arrived he didn't know what JSON was.

      I really have no issues with the concept of getting people in when we lack skills. It's required sometimes. I've worked with a handful of very good 457s, were they good enough to import? probably not, but hey, they were skilled.

      Unfortunately, I've worked in buildings full of 457s (and I literally mean a building full) who couldn't find their ass with two hands, let alone code.

      Overall, at least from what I've seen, in the tech sector, 457s are largely a rort to bring in low skill low pay workers.

      AC... obviously.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Spot on, mate. I was once given the task of overseeing a foreign 'expert' who had just come on board to take over my duties as a contractor. He of course had just been employed on a 457, and his resume said that he knew everything under the sun about Unix and Oracle. One day as part of the hand-over I invoked the Unix 'top' command. His startled response was 'What is that one?'. And believe me that is just one example, there were far worse - including one case at another site where the 457 person had spent 12 months while failing to perform a simple Oracle database migration before I completed the task from scratch within 3 days. The police eventually got involved with that one, but that's another story ... I'm not sure that incompetence is a crime, but fraud certainly is.

    2. Adam 52 Silver badge

      Oil and gas exploration is one.

      You've got some people with the skills locally, but not enough to cope with the boom times because you sacked them all during the bust.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I'd like to see some job descriptions"

      How about this one

      "The successful applicant will help provide ICT support services to clients ranging from desktop application through to server support, Network Security, Cloud Migration"

    4. pigulon

      I've seen the odd dodgy job ad recently trying to get around the requirements. For example, a hair salon run out of a house (in regional Victoria) was advertising for a "Web Administrator" but they don't currently have a website.

      With examples like this it's no wonder people don't trust the system.

      Maybe they *really* need a full time IT staff, but it's more likely the "Web Administrator" would end up being from overseas and very adept with a pair of thinning scissors.

    5. mark 177

      Lots of skills are in short supply in Australia - I have worked for companies in Oz where the Brits and South Africans outnumbered the home-grown IT people.

      1. Snow Wombat

        There is no shortage

        There is only a shortage at that price point...

        Plenty of people around, if they up the wages. I know plenty of home grown IT people who left the industry because they saw their wages going backwards, myself included.

        I went back to uni, did an engineering degree.. and am getting WAY better money, for pretty much the same type of job.

        1. LaeMing
          Unhappy

          Re: There is no shortage

          Sounds a bit like the recurrent 'shortage of school teachers' the govt. likes to trolley out from time to time, which is actually a shortage of 'paid (at any rate) teaching positions'.

          I ended up out-sourcing myself to China for several years back in the early '00's due to that one, since the door actually swings both ways sometimes.

  6. Warm Braw

    The nation is not creating enough jobs to keep up with population growth

    I presume they're finding it hard to compensate simply by increasing the number of 501s...

    1. LaeMing
      Boffin

      Re: The nation is not creating enough jobs to keep up with population growth

      Technological advancement without a pull-back in working hours will do that for ya!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Supposedly, Donald Trump is going to up the skills requirements and pay levels for American H1B's

    If news stories are to be believed, he's finally about to do it. 1) burnishes his reputation as being pro-worker. 2) Sticks it to a bunch of Silicon Valley CEOs who would rather support the Democratic Party anyway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Supposedly, Donald Trump is going to...

      As I've been saying for years, there's no reason to up the skills requirement - and I'm not sure how exactly you measure "skills" anyway.

      Just up the pay. At a minimum double the current $60K level, and triple wouldn't be unreasonable for H1Bs in high cost areas like Silicon Valley or Wall Street. And index it to inflation so it doesn't become more and more outdated like what happened with the current $60K level.

      Then it will no longer be a way to bring in cheap people who undercut US tech salaries, and would only be desirable to use for its intended purpose of bringing in people where skills shortages exist in the US, or who have unique experience/talent (i.e. the kind of immigrants who go on to found companies like Google)

      1. southen bastard

        Re: Supposedly, Donald Trump is going to...

        NEWS FLASH

        Australia is not a state of marica!

        tho is totally owned

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Facebook?

    "Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took to Facebook to announce that 457 visas will be replaced with a new visa"

    Why is a government making announcements such as this via a closed platform(*) ?

    (* Which you only have access to if you have paid with all your personal information and submit to ongoing monitoring of your internet activities)

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Facebook?

      (* Which you only have access to if you have paid with all your personal information and submit to ongoing monitoring of your internet activities)

      Ah, it was a rhetorical question then?

    2. Cpt Blue Bear

      Re: Facebook?

      "Why is a government making announcements such as this via a closed platform"

      It makes a change from their habit of announcing stuff on Sky News which has about the same audience of an amateur football match and you have to pay to receive. It is however owned by Rupert Murdoch so I presume they can be relied upon not to ask awkward questions or look to closely at the details.

  9. Stevie

    Bah!

    So the birth rate is outstripping job creation?

    I foresee a new "Ban the Bonk" law in Australia's future.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: Bah!

      We're Australian--no sex for us please!

    2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Bah!

      Do we need to roll out Tony Abbott to remind Australian women of their "duty" again?

  10. Kernel

    The real reason??

    "imported workers undercut are much more productive than locals' wages."

    FTFY.

    I don't know if it's still an issue, but at one stage there was much angst within the Aussie shearing community over NZ shearers working in Australia and using wide combs rather than narrow ones on the shears - of course an NZ shearer could cut more wool each day so were preferred by the Aussie farmers.

  11. FozzyBear
    Facepalm

    My Take

    Unfortunately Australia seems to follow America blindly when it comes to politics. Pauline Hanson has been growing in her political power and most of that is due to Trump winning. A lot of trump's rhetoric has been Pauline hanson's stance for years now.

    Maladjusted Turnbull (the wanker that he is) is seeing the writing on the wall. No way he will win the next election. He is simply trying to appeal to the masses out there and gain political brownie points.

    The next you will hear is that Australia will build a great wall to keep out all the boat people.

    1. Tannin

      Re: My Take

      Meanwhile, Premier Trumble is still hell-bent on maintaining a massive immigration program.

      Like others before him, he talks up 457s and illegals (both very minor contributors to the total number arriving every year) and hope that voters will be too stupid to notice that he is doing nothing whatever to get the overall number under control.

      Sadly, this dishonest Howard-era policy has worked at elections many times in the past, and probably will work again.

      (Though it might not be enough to save him: 10 disaster Newspolls in a row now, and #11 due any day.)

    2. david 12 Silver badge

      Re: My Take

      --When it's not following the UK blindly, which is what it does the other 70% of the time.

      1. LaeMing
        Go

        Re: My Take

        It is basically a big political circle-jerk, is what we are saying.

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