The Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott, promised that he will facilitate better arrangements for Greeks to work in Australia if he gains power.
“I can well imagine that a lot of Greeks at the moment want to come for working holidays to Australia given the situation in Greece and it is important that we give people from Greece every opportunity to make a contribution to Australia and I’d like to be as facilitating as I can be,” he added during an ethnic media conference in Melbourne this week.
His commitment to further the negotiations with the Greek government for the agreement on Work and Holiday Visa to be finalised, was followed by a short but hopeful announcement for skilled overseas workers who hope to be sponsored from an Australian employer and work here.
“Currently the unions dictate parts of Australia’s migration policy. We want the 457 system to be at least as user friendly in the future as it was under the Howard Government,” Mr Abbot told Neos Kosmos.
Asked if rethinking of the current regime means a more flexible approach to the whole process, he said that his government will look carefully into the current arrangements and will take away a number of hurdles that make the whole process of applying for a 457 subclass visa a difficult one. He added that the migration coalition policy will be announced soon.
Another issue Mr Abbot covered during the Press Conference was of competition arising between the public broadcaster SBS – which was initially established as an ad free service – and the struggling private ethnic media who compete with a public owned but privately seeking funds organisation.
While acknowledging SBS provides a valuable service to the community and is a major player in the ethnic broadcasting landscape of Australia, Mr Abbot expressed that it is not an entirely level playing field between SBS and other privately owned ethnic media companies.
However, Mr Abbott did not divulge details of any change of policy for the future of SBS but mentioned that there are going to be some changes in order to allow a fairer go for the privately owned ethic media.
“I am not proposing any significant change but I do think that we need to be conscious of the fact that it isn’t an entirely level playing field. I give you this undertaking though that the advertising policy of a future Coalition government will certainly include plenty of space for community and ethnic media,” he said.