The federal trade minister, Andrew Robb, has dismissed union fears that the job market would be flooded with cheap Chinese labour after the China free trade agreement (FTA) is concluded.
Robb would not be drawn on the detail of the deal, which is in the final stages of negotiation, telling reporters in Beijing that “Australian law would apply” to Chinese workers working on Chinese-backed infrastructure projects in Australia.
“[People on 457 visas] are getting Australian wages. We’ve had 14 years of the most significant private infrastructure development in our history. And we’ve been able to do it without cut-price labour,” Robb said.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, is on his way to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit this week. It is anticipated Abbott will announce an FTA with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, ahead of next week’s G20 meeting in Brisbane.
But Australian unions are not convinced and say the protection of wages and conditions must be written in to any bilateral deal.
Union leaders are calling on the government to release the details of the FTA to quash rumours that Chinese workers employed in Australia will be subject to Chinese wages and conditions, undercutting job prospects for local workers. They also want local workers to be given priority for infrastructure projects arising from the FTA.
“It is not in Australia’s interests to enter into trade deals that allow foreign governments and businesses to bring in their own workers on Australian projects,” secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Dave Oliver, said.
“Workers in Australia must receive wages, conditions and protections prescribed under Australian workplace laws – trade deals should not provide any exclusions for these requirements.”
Robb said commenting on the specifics of the China FTA before it is signed would amount to “negotiating in public”.
“With all our free trade agreements – if you look at the United States, Korea and Japan – there have been issues around movement of natural persons, particularly things such as mutual recognition, easier recognition of skill sets and whatever, so again those issues have been under consideration but I don’t want to go into the details.”
The Korea-Australia free trade agreement (Kafta), signed in December last year, stipulates that Korean workers would be paid at Australian wages. But it contains a clause saying companies using Australian workers in South Korea may be subject to labour market testing to see if jobs could be undertaken by local workers. That requirement for labour market testing does not exist for South Korean workers in Australia.
Labor wants to make sure any future trade deals create jobs for Australians.
“If there is a big development in Australia I would rather see Australians get the opportunity to be employed first. And that is not a case [that] we shouldn’t have guest workers; Australia has always had guest workers,” the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, told ABC on Sunday.
“Labor will stand up for making sure that we deal with opportunities for unemployed Australians as well as promoting trade.”
