Government abolishes 457 visas, proposes new temporary skilled worker visas

The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has announced he will abolish the 457 temporary skilled worker visas and replace them with a new skilled visa program. It comes after Opposition leader Bill Shorten has been defending a dramatic increase in the number of 457 visas issued during his time as employment minister.

Source: SBS

For the last four years, Labor has been vowing to cut back the number of 457 visas granted in a bid to protect local jobs. Now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced he'll do it first.

He says some 95,000 457 visa-holders will be able to remain in Australia under their current visa conditions.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says the change is an attempt to clean up Labor's mess.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says primary visa applications dipped by 3.5 per cent last year, while the number of primary 457 visa-holders in Australia fell from almost 104,000 to just under 95,800.

 Almost a quarter of the 457 visa-holders came from India, and 19 per cent from the United Kingdom.