Prime Minister Julia Gillard has promised to put Australian jobs first despite Friday's decision to bring in more than 1,700 foreigners to work on a mine project in Western Australia.

It was revealed earlier that Ms Gillard, who had been in the United States, was not informed of the decision until she returned to Australia on Wednesday.

The workers have been granted visas under the first enterprise migration agreement (EMA) to work at mining magnate Gina Rinehart's $9 billion Roy Hill iron ore project in the Pilbara.

But at a press conference this afternoon, Ms Gillard refused to be drawn on the issue of "internal government processes" and instead moved to assure Australians that Labor will put local jobs first.

"My concern here and concern of the Labor Government is always to put Australian jobs first," she told reporters in Melbourne.

"The sheer size and scale of what's happening means we will need some foreign labour but we're working to make sure Aussies get jobs first."

And Ms Gillard says she has implemented several initiatives which will ensure that happens.

"We'll have a jobs board which will be a way of Aussies to know what's happening in the resources sector and what the jobs are. Companies won't be able to bring in foreign workers if there's an Australian ready and able to do the work on the jobs board," she said.

"And secondly I'm strengthening oversight of enterprise migration agreements."

Earlier, Labor MP Nick Champion told ABC News 24 the EMA was discussed by cabinet and caucus last year.

"This process went through cabinet, it went through cabinet and caucus last year in actual fact," he said.

"It's fair to say most of the caucus want Australians to be trained up and skilled first, but we have to accept that with these massive projects we just simply won't undertake them without both foreign capital and foreign labour."

He says despite 1,700 foreign workers coming to Australia under the agreement, 6,000 Australian jobs will be created because of the move.

Skills Minister Chris Evans says the deal is a necessary step to manage the workforce, telling AM the move is a sensible economic solution.

"Tens of thousands of Australians will get job opportunities in construction of these projects in the next few years," he said.

But Opposition leader Tony Abbott says the fact Ms Gillard was not informed of the decision until her return from the United States on Wednesday shows just how dysfunctional the Government is.

"This is an almost $10 billion project and it's being used as a political football in the struggle between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd," he said.

"It's just another symptom of a government that is at war with itself, that is divided and dysfunction and of a prime minister who doesn't know what's happening inside her own government."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 6 minutes 31 seconds 6 m Labor MP Nick Champion speaks to Weekend Breakfast

'Gobsmacked'

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The Government is also facing an angry backlash from unions and within its own ranks over the move.

Labor backbencher Doug Cameron says he is gobsmacked and bemused by the decision, and does not believe Labor's caucus will be comfortable with it either.

"I'm gobsmacked. In the week where Australian workers are being marched off the job in Kurri Kurri and Tullamarine that we're marching Chinese workers onto Roy Hill. It just defies logic to me," he said.

Independent MP Tony Windsor says the cabinet should have been involved in the decision.

"There are enormous ramifications potentially in terms of this decision," Mr Windsor said.

"If we're worried about fly in fly out circumstances and the impact it can have on regional towns, we should be very concerned about fly in fly out from international destinations.

"This has ramifications that should be discussed by the representatives of the Parliament, it shouldn't be just taken off one Minister's desk."

Outspoken MP Bob Katter has also faulted the Government's move, branding it a ludicrous decision which erodes confidence in the national economy.

"These people are so lacking in patriotism and so committed to looking after the interests of corporations that invariably are foreign owned or foreign financed, that they have agreed to fly in people from overseas," Mr Katter said.

"They will undermine our awards and they will take your jobs, and I don't just mean in mining - it'll spread beyond that.

"The Australian people will not stand for this."

The AMWU says the move sets a dangerous precedent and is a slap in the face for the domestic workforce.

"The respect we believe all employees should have for Australian workers I think is going out the window," union secretary Andrew Dettmer said.

"What we will be seeing is employers like Gina Rinehart and others, Clive Palmer, BHP, trying to import more compliant and complacent work forces, ones who don't have a commitment to the local economy, who don't have a commitment to the local community, and of course are only coming here for the dollar.

The CMFEU's national secretary Dave Noonan says the announcement has been mired in "spin and nonsense", and claims there are plenty of avenues for Ms Rinehart to hire overseas workers in specific roles without offering local workers the jobs first.

He says his union has been flooded with calls, emails and texts from concerned members, and it represents a "sell-out" of Australian jobs.

"The project would create many more jobs for Australian workers if Australians were given the opportunity to apply for them first.

"Australia's migration policy has been handed over holus-bolus to Gina Rinehart."