Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will announce a policy designed to force employers into more rigorous advertising to find and then train Australian workers before being able to recruit from abroad. Credit:Joe Armao "The average number of grants [of visas] each year for cooks has more than doubled, while those for jobs like bricklayers and cafe managers are also on the rise," he will say. The move is designed to "toughen the rules" so local workers who are "ready and willing" to work will have first dibs because employers will have to demonstrate that they have genuinely tested the Australian market prior to seeking and gaining approval to hire employees from overseas. New rules would also force companies using large numbers of overseas-sourced workers to have training schemes in place. Mr Shorten, who is already being criticised by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for playing the populist card in the wake of the shock election of Donald Trump in the US, will argue the 457 skilled labour visa class is being abused by employers who are too ready to import rather than train.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused Bill Shorten of flirting with protectionism. Credit:Andrew Meares "It is simply unacceptable to see jobs like bricklaying languishing on the list of jobs eligible for 457 visas longer than it takes to train someone for the job," he will say. "We want to protect Australian training standards for our trades, making sure temporary workers meet Australian skills standards before they come to work in Australia. "Australians benefit from a productive, growing and open economy, and having the right skilled workers helps support economic growth. But Australian workers should not be excluded from good jobs because employers are turning to temporary work visas as an alternative to local hiring. "Exploitation of overseas workers not only puts them at risk, but undermines Australian wages and safety standards, which hurts us all. This includes recent scandals at 7-Eleven where hundreds of workers on a variety of visa classes were exploited."

On Monday, Mr Turnbull accused Mr Shorten of reverting to shabby politics and flirting with protectionism. "Having distinguished himself by personally abusing Mr Trump prior to his election as president of the United States, he now says that he wants to heed the lessons of Ohio and Michigan and he wants to stand up for Australian jobs," he said. "Mr Shorten is supporting the proposition that foreign backpackers, foreign workers, should pay no tax at all. So that if you have a foreign worker, a backpacker, working picking fruit next to an Australian, the Australian will be paying tax, but the foreigner won't. How is that standing up for Australian workers?" However, this was factually incorrect. Under Labor's favoured 10.5 per cent backpacker tax, Australian workers would still be advantaged because they enjoy a tax-free threshold of $18,200. Backpackers, by contrast, are to be taxed – albeit at a lower rate – from the first dollar earned.

But the Turnbull government on Tuesday pointed to figures suggesting 457 visas reached record levels under Mr Shorten's tenure as employment minister, with 68,481 primary visas granted in 2012-13. It says that number has dropped by 34 per cent in the proceeding years under a Coalition government, pointing to the declining manufacturing sector, where the number of 457 visas issued has dropped from 4104 in 2011-12 to 2073 in the last financial year. Mr Turnbull accused the Labor leader of hypocrisy. "The highest number of 457 visas were granted when he was the employment minister. It is around a third more 457 visas were granted when he was employment minister than have been granted over the last 12 months," he said. "Bill Shorten was in the Olympic grade of granting 457 visas.

Mr Turnbull also criticised the Labor leader for his opposition to the government's proposal for a backpacker tax. "Rather than standing up for Australian workers, Mr Shorten's message to Australian workers is 'If you go out picking fruit, an Australian citizen, and you work alongside a backpacker, the backpacker will pay no tax' - that's Labor's plan for foreign workers." With Tom McIlroy Follow us on Twitter