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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1519 asked in the Legislative Council on 3 December 2019 by Hon Charles Smith

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

JOBS — TEMPORARY MIGRANT VISAS

1519. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the Leader of the House representing the Premier:

I refer to the article in The Australian entitled ''Temporary migrant visas issued for 2.2 million'', in which Labor employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said the ''increased overreliance'' on temporary visas to supply labour was of great concern when nearly two million Australians are unemployed or underemployed. I also refer to the McGowan Labor government's recent declaration of Perth as a regional city and the increase in the number of qualifying occupations to around 700 for regional visas applied for through the SkillSelect online system and in the graduate student occupations for state visa nominations.

Does the Premier now concede and agree with his federal counterparts that all forms of temporary visas represent a massive labour supply shot, which has lowered the bargaining power of local workers and placed downward pressure on wages, considering that 82 000 Western Australians were unemployed and looking for work as at October 2019?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I do thank the member for some notice of the question, but it is not in my file and, if it was lodged today, I did not see it when all questions came in earlier this morning. I am not sure whether there is an answer. If there is one out there, I will give it to the member at the end of question time.

Hon Charles Smith interjected.

Hon SUE ELLERY: Okay. I have five questions from the member in my file, but I do not have that one. I will check for him.