ttbn,
Up here in Cairns we have a huge kitchen in Brothers Football Club (4.00Am Gambling license) operated by
a Chinese restaurateur who employs all 457 workers because they need to speak Cantonese to communicate.
The operation works 24 hours a day producing food for outside restaurants as well as dive boats and aninternal
bistro where Australians are employed because they are seen by the membership.
There are hundreds of hospitality workers especially cooks out of a job here.
Its been going on for forty five years that I know of.
A clothes shop owner my wife worked for 45 years ago was able to import as 26 year old girl from France
with her chaperone as a fabric cutter because he swore to the government of the day that the skill wasn't
available here in Australia.
That might have been true back then but the scam is at least that old.

Luciferase, why do you choose to propagate the lie that government debt burdens the young?

The young aren't under any obligation to pay off the government's debt. The government's under no obligation to eliminate its debt, so it's not a burden on any generation.

Austerity is generally good in the boom times, as it can create space for more private sector growth. But when there is plenty of spare capacity in the economy, as there is now, all austerity does is weaken the economy. It doesn't even get us any closer to surplus, as the weakening of the economy means there's less tax revenue.

This budget does burden the young, forcing students to start paying back their uni fees even when they're still on low wages. If you're really concerned about the burden on the young, you should be calling for the repayment threshold to be lifted!

chrisgaff1000,

Yes. The whole 457 scam is bordering on treason (by politicians) in my book.

The redneck labor supporters probably don't realise that the greatest numbers of 457 visa workers in history occurred under the last labor government.