Skilled new Australian workers are missing out on jobs to foreign workers from their homeland who have no better skills than their own, western Sydney MP Julie Owens says.
The opposition is pushing for stricter labour market testing laws, while backing increased levies on employers who turn to foreign workers over Australians.
The government wants to charge employers up to $1800 per year for each temporary foreign worker they hire and $5000 for each permanent worker.
Levies would be paid into the Skilling Australians Fund to pay for trade training and apprenticeships.
Labor backs the levies but some MPs, including Ms Owens, suggested they could be higher.
"They are only increasing it by $10 a week, hardly enough to dramatically change business behaviour and the decisions they make about whether or not to bring people in from overseas," she told parliament on Thursday.
But for the change to be effective Ms Owens said employers needed stricter rules around hiring foreign workers.
In her Parramatta electorate, skilled permanent migrants have watched as temporary workers from their homeland with no better skills than theirs were employed instead of them, she said.
"This doesn't' happen just occasionally, this is a common story I hear," she said.
Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge said the proposal would give ministerial power to determine how labour market testing would be conducted.
"This enhanced labour market testing will ensure that employers are providing Australians with the first opportunity for jobs before they seek to bring in workers from overseas," he said.
