After a long and continuous public debate around the exploitation and systematic scams of the temporary foreign skilled worker visa scheme, on April 18 2017, the government announced that the subclass 457 visa will be abolished and replaced with a new Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) Visa program.
While Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that "Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs", current 457 visa holders, international students and prospective 457 workers have expressed their concerns and opposition of the decision.
Calls for unity from community organisations
The 'Australian Chinese 457 Right Defending Alliance', initiated by the community organisation 'The Australia Justice & Fair Multicultural Community', has called on those affected by the new policy to "unite" and "participate in the public petition."
Claiming around 4000 members across the country in the Chinese language social media platform 'WeChat', the organising committee told their supporters that: "A piece of paper has crashed enormous hard working people's dreams - what did we do wrong?"
"Countless early morning and late night, we work hard. Some of us even sacrifice family and business in homeland to come to Australia, a foreign land to learn to integrate and survive. But now, their only shelter has been deprived by the government. Why?"
The organisation vows to "show their determination" to the government calling individuals to create an opportunity to "change the history".
Ms Hu Yinxiang, a member of the organisation told SBS Mandarin in an interview that while she is not a 457 visa holder, she "deeply feels for them."
"Many of those who are affected are young people between 25 years to 35 years old. Australia needs young and skilled labor like them."
The top three citizenship countries granted primary visa grants in 2014-15 were India (24.3%), the United Kingdom (17.2%) and the People’s Republic of China (6.9%).
Under the recent changes, the Australian government has also slashed 200 occupations from the list of eligible occupations and has tightened the criterion both from the visa applicant as well as the sponsoring employers, including tougher English language tests, stricter labour market testing, at least two years of work experience and a mandatory police check.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has also announced that if it's elected, his party would hike temporary foreign worker visa fees and create a new visa to attract the best and brightest to Australia in the areas of science, medicine, academia, research and technology.
