Irish Echo Feb 2017

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IRISH FILM

BREXIT LOOMS

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Mardi Gras Film Festival To Showcase Irish Movies

Wins And Losses For Ireland As Britain Sharpens EU Exit Strategy

For breaking news visit www.irishecho.com.au

AUST RALI A’ S I RI S H N E WS PA P E R February 9 - 21, 2017 | Volume 30 – Number 1

AUS $5.95 (incl GST) Laura Corrigan from Cavan is part of the Melbourne Demons squad for the new women’s AFL competition. Will she be the first of many Irish women to sign up? Picture: Melbourne FC

She’s A Demon Cavan Woman Kicks Off AFL Career SEE PAGE 25

EMPLOYERS MAY FIND IT TOUGHER TO SPONSOR FOREIGN WORKERS

Pollies take aim at 457 visas on notice to expect tougher visa rules under a Labor government to spur the use of local workers while signalling his ambition to increase investment in vocational education to reverse years of neglect. Mr Shorten named “jobs, jobs, jobs” as his dominant policy agenda this year, including a push against the use of the 457 skilled foreign worker visas to undercut Australian jobs. “This nation will pay the price in the future for simply the shor t-term importing of skills, rather than training

our own,” he told the National Press Club. “Labor has never said you shouldn’t have guest workers where there is genuine vacancies, but do we really need to import early childhood educators? Do we really need not to be training up our own diesel mechanics and motor mechanics and fitters and turners? Do we really need not to be training our own electricians for the future? So there is a problem with exploitation and that’s real.” Asked if the application fee for 457 visas could be raised to spend more on

TAFE, the Opposition Leader signalled his support for the idea. “In terms of the application fee for 457 visas, I do think that is an issue. If it becomes too easy and too cheap to import someone rather than train someone, inevitably, like water flows to the lowest level, people will go to where the opportunity is,” he said. Employers pay $420 and workers pay $1060 for the visas under existing rules. Fees are expected to increase this year. However, Prime Minister Malcolm

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Turnbull also expressed concern about the number of 457 visas being offered to foreign workers. “If Bill Shorten’s going to talk about 457 visas, he should turn up in sack cloth and ashes as a penitent confessing to his sins,” Mr Turnbull said. “Nobody issued more 457 visas than Bill Shor ten. He is the Olympic champion of 457 visas.” Print Post No 100007285

BOTH the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition have signalled their desire to make it tougher for Australian employers to sponsor workers on the popular 457 visas. Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten has backed the idea of making employers pay more to hire skilled foreign workers as he seeks to tap into voter anxiety about lost job opportunities, ­warning Australia will “pay the price” for making it too easy to ­import labour. The Opposition Leader put industry


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