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18th April 2017
09:28am BST
The Australian government is set on replacing the popular 457 visas with a brand new category, giving Australians priority for Australian jobs, The Guardian reports.
Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull announced the took to Facebook last week to announce:
''Australians must have priority for Australian jobs – so we’re abolishing the [class] 457 visas, the visas that bring temporary foreign workers into our country. We’ll no longer let 457 visas be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians.''
“It’s important that businesses still get access to the skills they need to grow and invest. So the 457 visa will be replaced by a new temporary visa specifically designed to recruit the best and the brightest in the national interest.”
At the present time, 95,758 people are in Australia on a 457 visa.
The skilled visa would be replaced with a new temporary work visa, available for either two or four years, which would require applicants to hold at least two years' work experience, a clean criminal record and mandatory labour market testing.
It has also been announced that current 457 visa-holders will be unaffected.
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