By Sheena Amos
DUBAI: US President Donald Trump may not have been successful enough to get his ‘tough’ executive order on immigration ban implemented, but Australia has quietly and determinedly gone ahead and toughened its entry rule for some categories of workers.
The latest is that ‘foreign’ workers have been banned from employment in the country’s fast food businesses.
The irony is that only a marginal amount of foreigners are employed in the likes of McDonald’s or KFC – at less than 0.3 per cent.
Those who are already employed will have to leave the country once their contract is over unless the employer can prove the foreign worker is crucial to the business.
Setting Precedent
“It is not the relevance of the immigration ban on this particular category of workers – the more important thing is the precedent it sets for the overall immigration policy in Australia,” said an immigration consultant.
“With this ban, I think Australia is testing the waters, in preparation for perhaps tougher and wider immigration bans on other categories,” he pointed out.
Labor MP Tony Burke told Sky News: “If … Australian workers were getting more highly-paid jobs in the resources sector, and overseas workers were getting the lower-paid jobs, that’s hardly against the national interest.”