Additional comments – Report 186: IA-CEPA and A-HKFTA

Peter Khalil MP, Deputy Chair; Senator Tim Ayres; Senator Catryna Bilyk; Senator Marielle Smith; Kate Thwaites MP; Josh Wilson MP
A-HKFTA and IA-CEPA reaffirm Australia’s existing 1995 WTO commitments to waive labour market testing for Intra-Corporate Transferees and Independent Executives. However there is no waiver of labour market testing for Contractual Service Suppliers in either the A-HKFTA or the IA-CEPA agreements and under A-HKFTA and IA-CEPA Australia has not made any commitments in relation to labour market testing on Contractual Service Suppliers, as Australia has not yet entered into negotiations on an agreement.
For this reason, during the JSCOT review process the Labor members of the Committee argued that any future agreement that Australia may negotiate with Indonesia for the entry of temporary foreign workers as Contractual Services Suppliers should:
1
Be negotiated as a treaty-level agreement
2
Include a commitment to labour market testing to preference Australian jobs and also skills tests to ensure that any temporary foreign workers meet the same standards as Australian workers.
The Labor members of the Committee believe that Report 186 should include a recommendation with the language as follows:

Recommendation 

The Committee recommends that the future resolution of an agreement with Indonesia on the movement of natural persons, as referenced in Chapter 12 of IA-CEPA, only occur on the basis that any temporary foreign labour arrangements include the application of labour market testing and actual skills testing in relevant areas like electrical trades, and notes that this should in any case be a treaty-level agreement.
The Labor members of the Committee moved to have this included as an additional recommendation in Report 186 however it did not receive support from the Committee as a whole.
Peter Khalil MP
Senator Tim Ayres
Senator Catryna Bilyk
Senator Marielle Smith
Kate Thwaites MP
Josh Wilson MP

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About this inquiry

This inquiry will examine the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and Hong Kong, China and the Investment Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.



Past Public Hearings

09 Sep 2019: CANBERRA
02 Sep 2019: PERTH
27 Aug 2019: MELBOURNE