Yahoo Finance 
Australia clampdown on 'foreign workers' - bins 457 visas
The government will scrap the controversial 457 visa and replace it with new “temporary visa” with additional provisions for English proficiency.
“We are abolishing the 457 visas – the visas that bring temporary foreign workers into our country,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a video Facebook post.
The 457 visa allows businesses to bring skilled foreign workers into Australia to fill shortages in the labour force.
But in the video announcement posted on the prime minister’s Facebook page, Mr Turnbull said his government would be putting Australians workers first.
“We are an immigration nation, but the fact remains: Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs,” he said.
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“We’ll no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians.”
In a nod to business, Mr Turnbull said the 457 visa would be replaced by a new visa that would allow the “best and the brightest” of foreign workers.
The new visa would take into account English skills and an applicant’s work history, Mr Turnbull said.
It will also be used to target skills shortages in regional Australia.
Mr Turnbull also announced there would be a new fund to address skills shortage within Australia’s current workforce, with details to be announced later.
Never a fan of the 457 visa in the first place, unions had renewed calls for them to be scrapped after several fast-food outlets were found to be employing foreign workers ahead of young Australians.
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The Turnbull government moved quickly in March to remove the fast-food industry entirely from the 457 visa application provision but unions wanted the bans to be more widespread.
