Internal fears are being raised, including by some Gillard supporters, that the move has subjected Labor to claims of xenophobia and failed to ease anger in western Sydney over the influx of asylum-seekers.
Some MPs, however, are pushing the Prime Minister to go further in policing 457 visas, while others argue she is merely protecting Australian workers.
But the dissenting MPs believe the 457 program is essential for economic growth - in all areas - and needs to be flexible to meet ebbs and flows in the demand for skilled workers.
"It is part of our main migration program," one Labor MP said.
An MP who did not want to be named described the 457 issue as "sinister" and a "throwback to the White Australia policy".
Another said that, while the changes to the regime announced by Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor were "quite mild", the rhetoric used to deal with it "doesn't sound like Labor".
Trade Minister Craig Emerson said the government's tightening of 457 visa processes was designed to achieve the original intention of the visa category: "that is, to meet temporary skills shortages where genuinely there aren't Australian workers to fill the positions".
After this week pledging the government wanted to "stop foreign workers being put at the front of the queue, with Australian workers at the back", Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor have later in the week cited rorts of the system as the government's reason for toughening the 457 visa regime.
Ms Gillard yesterday defended her stance, saying she was interested in protecting Australian jobs and rejecting claims her message was damaging national harmony or the economy.
"I believe we should only be looking for temporary workers from overseas if there are skills shortages that we cannot fill any other way," Ms Gillard said.
"Mr Abbott believes that temporary workers from overseas should be a mainstay of our migration program; I just don't think that's right."
Ms Gillard said Australia continued to accept migrants who made it permanently their home and became Australian citizens.
"It's been good for our economy; it's been good for our society," she said.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, in a speech in Melbourne, said successive generations of migrants from all corners of the world "have made Australia much stronger and richer than we would otherwise have been". "It is worth pondering for a moment where Australia would be today, in terms of both our living standards at home, and our standing in the world, had we simply shut the door after World War II . . . our population stagnating at a little more than 8 million people," he said.
Declaring population policy "fundamental for the future", Mr Rudd said Australia had instead managed to become the 12th largest economy in the world and a member of the G20.
Ms Gillard said the Howard government had not invested enough in skills and training and cited her experience of meeting overseas-trained doctors and nurses in hospitals.
"We need their skills," she said. "When Mr Abbott was minister for health we did not train enough doctors and nurses."
A spokesman for the Opposition Leader said: "The 457 visa program is a demand-driven program. That's why the use of 457s has almost doubled since Julia Gillard became Prime Minister. It would remain a demand-driven program to address skills shortages under a Coalition government."
The number of people training to be doctors, nurses and other health professionals, including psychologists, had increased when Mr Abbott was health minister or had increased since that time because of measures that he announced as health minister.
Labor senator Doug Cameron said the government should look at introducing inspectors, funded by major mining companies to make sure 457 visa conditions, including workplace standards, were being properly adhered to.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson yesterday stood by his comments in June last year when he said the domestic labour force might not be big enough to meet the peak in construction demand on mining projects, prompting the government to introduce fast-tracked processing of 457 visas and enterprise migration agreements.
Mr Ferguson said his comments were "consistent with Labor's policy of always putting Australian workers first".
"Achieving the potential of our resources industry depends on having the workers needed to deliver on the pipeline of new investment being created, which leads to long-term Australian jobs in the operations phase," he said.
Source:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
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