Chapter 3 - Issues raised during the inquiry

3.1 The main issue raised by submissions received by the committee related to the increased cost burden the Bill would impose on participating employers. The committee also received evidence that the proposed application of the laws to existing visa arrangements had an unfair retrospective effect and that the severity of the sanctions for non-compliance with a request for information necessitated that employers be granted more time to comply.

Proportionality of the proposed measures

3.2 Some business organisations expressed the view that the Bill represented a disproportionate and potentially detrimental response to a limited problem. For example, the Australian Contract Professions Management Association (ACPMA) noted:

Out of 15,000 business sponsorships approved between June 2006 and January this year, 20 employers have been banned or sanctioned from the 457 visa scheme, and 300 are under investigation. That’s less than 0.2 percent of all approved sponsorships.[1]

3.3 The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) said:

…these cases of abuse are exceptions and do not justify making the system significantly more difficult to access for the vast majority of employers who fully comply with their legal obligations under the scheme.[2]

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migration_sponsorship/report/c03.htm

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