The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says there are some serious inequities in the short-term 457 working visa scheme.
The chamber has released a new skilled migration plan which supports the use of short-term working visas in cases where there is a demonstrated shortage of Australian workers to do the job.
However, the chamber's chief executive, Peter Hendy says the current scheme is too complex and needs to be made simpler in the interests of workers and employers.
“We don't think necessarily that migrants should get a better deal than Australians and in fact, one of the ways that the 4-5-7 working visa system works is that you can't pay below a certain amount, whereas Australians can be paid at lower amounts and so that actually in a perverse way, actually discriminates against Australian workers,” Mr Hendy said.