Companies bidding for government projects worth more than $10m will be required to look for local workers first under Labor

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Labor would require firms to first look for local workers before filling skills shortages in a bid to use $50bn of government contracts to encourage local employment.

Bill Shorten will announce Labor’s beefed up procurement policy on the campaign trail in Queensland on Monday, part of his nine-day bus tour of key marginals.

Under the opposition’s proposal, companies bidding for government projects worth more than $10m will be required to develop a local jobs plan if Labor is elected.

According to Shorten companies will “have to undertake local labour market testing for any new employees required for the project, to ensure temporary work visa holders are not undercutting local wages”.

Employers are currently required to conduct labour market testing for certain visas – such as the temporary skills shortage visa – by advertising jobs for at least a month before sponsoring non-Australian workers.

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Labor’s policy appears to extend that by imposing a new requirement to look for locals before hiring workers on other visas.

But a spokesman for the shadow industry minister, Kim Carr, told Guardian Australia the policy “is not about the visa status of a worker”.

“On commonwealth government-funded projects and procurement, bidders will be expected to set out how they will test the local region for any new workers or suppliers required for the project or contract,” he said.

“For example if a project in Townsville needed to hire a new person they should demonstrate how they will test the Townsville employment market before going to the rest of Australia or overseas.”

The policy may also mean government contracts reimpose labour market testing even where a trade deal creates an exemption to the visa condition. For example, the TPP11 deal waives labour market testing for workers from Canada, Peru, Mexico, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Labor insists the policy is consistent with Australia’s international agreements.

Projects over $250m would have to ensure that local firms are provided with a fair opportunity to win work by developing an Australian industry participation plan, preventing them being excluded by firms who use overseas suppliers without putting work to an open tender.

“Labor believes that if local small and medium businesses can do the job competitively, then the job should be done locally,” Shorten said.

“If bidders on large government contracts can’t show how they’ll support competitive local business and local jobs, then they shouldn’t be getting contracts. It’s simple – no local jobs, no contract.”

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Labor would require one in 10 workers on major projects to be apprentices from the local area, which Shorten said would “ensure we are giving young locals the chance to learn the skills they need for a job, and help older workers retrain for new jobs”.

As the Coalition government has boasted of reducing permanent migration from 190,000 to 162,000, Labor has instead focused on the number of temporary visa holders with work rights in Australia, following the lead of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Shorten has said that there are 1.6m people in Australia with visas granting work rights, and said the government “can’t be serious about migration levels” because it has ignored the issue.

Labor’s local jobs pitch is aimed at working class voters in Queensland regional marginal seats, especially those tempted by the economic nationalist pitch of minor parties One Nation, Katter’s Australia Party and Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.

In 2017 Labor’s appeal to “employ Australians first” backfired when Shorten was forced to concede an ad featuring 12 apparently white people lacked diversity and was “a bad oversight”.