ChAFTA will bring in low paid Chinese workers undercutting Australians - Report

The same person who has advised the Lieberals on the 457 visa program was commissioned by the Electrical Trade Union to investigate and report on the China and Australia Free Trade Agreement. After three months the law lecturer has come to the conclusion that if this goes ahead it will surrender Australian immigration laws to China.

Labor has been making noises that it won't let it through the senate in it's current form.

With ChAFTA and the TPP, Australia appears to be under attack from both sides. The US wants to fuck us with the TPP, and now it looks like China wants to do the same. Saying that about China the Lieberals are accusing us of "racism". The comment is no more racist than the comment about the TPP.

Engineers and "most trades" will also be exposed to direct competition from imported Chinese labour under the FTA as it is currently drafted. 

The FTA has become a point of bitter political division, with the Coalition accusing Labor and the union movement of stoking a "racist" fear campaign against China. 

Behind the rhetoric, Mr Robb's office has been talking to Labor, with Bill Shorten expected to this week outline what it would take for the Opposition to back the FTA. 

In Dr Howe's assessment, Article 10.4, paragraph 3, of the FTA prevents the Australian government from putting any cap on the number of 457 visas issued to Chinese workers in two critical lower skilled categories: "contractual service suppliers of China" – basically trade qualified workers and "installers and servicers of China" – low skilled workers who will be able to access temporary visas. 

"Even if the Australian government wished to constrain the number of 457 visa holders more generally because local unemployment was high or to reflect changing economic circumstances, it could not do so with respect to Chinese citizens," Dr Howe found. 

"The absence of a cap means that Australian employers can engage unlimited numbers of Chinese citizens on 457 visas. 

"Advocates of the ChAFTA will point to the text of the agreement that requires Chinese workers be employed according to Australian law, and government policy which currently stipulates labour market testing for labour agreements, neither of these are sufficient to ensure that the ChAFTA's operation in practice does not place downward pressure on Australian wages, conditions and labour standards. 

"Without labour market testing, there is no regulatory mechanism to prevent an employer from preferencing a Chinese worker over a local worker for these two categories [contractual service suppliers and installers and servicers of China]." Read more