The Australian Government’s 2016 Budget introduced a number of proposed changes to the labour regulatory framework. Among these is a new 32.5% tax on earnings by short-term migrant workers in the Seasonal Worker Program (referred to altogether as ‘backpackers’).
Labour law expert Joanna Howe (of the University of Adelaide) published an op-ed this week in The Australian. Howe highlights the alarming potential for the tax to lead to illegal work and the possibility for many to be coerced or misled into working against their visa conditions, leading to migrant worker issues akin to the recent 7-Eleven situation. She proposes a three-fold solution:
‘First, we need to reconsider the regulation around our various visas to ensure that vulnerable temporary migrant workers are not exploited.
Second, local workers need to have preferential access to Australian jobs.
Third, temporary migrant workers should have access to jobs only where a concrete and established skill shortage or labour shortage exists.’
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