The Liberal National Party MP who almost lost his Central Queensland seat because of an aggressive anti-457 visa campaign by the ALP said there was fertile ground for a scare campaign in the region after the end of the mining boom.
While the "Aussie jobs first" campaign failed to win the ALP a string of federal seats in the mining cities of Gladstone, Mackay and Townsville, ALP organisers believed it struck a chord with locals who were struggling to find jobs.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is on a post-Trump US election tour of regional seats in Queensland, taking in Townsville on Tuesday and Mackay on Wednesday, spruiking the party's changes to drum up support for changes to the temporary visas for foreign workers. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called out Mr Shorten over resurrecting the scare campaign over 457 visas – pointing out the visas peaked under Mr Shorten when he was employment minister in 2012.
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Labor used the 457 visa campaign in a string of Central Queensland seats. supplied
But Flynn MP Ken O'Dowd – who only won his Gladstone-based seat by 1800 votes in the July election – admitted the message resonated with many blue-collar workers in his seat.
Mr O'Dowd was targeted by Labor strategists during the federal campaign. Pamphlets entitled "Stop the 457 Visa rorts – Put Ken O'Dowd, Mr Turnbull and LNP last" were distributed widely through the seat of Flynn, which takes in the industrial port city of Gladstone – the home of the $80 billion liquefied natural gas industry – as well as the mining towns of Blackwater and Emerald.
"It's populism. We had 14,000 workers working on Curtis Island on the gas projects and some of them were 457 visas, so it did resonate with some of the local people for sure," Mr O'Dowd told The Australian Financial Review.
"The pamphlets were a bit much. But Labor, under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, brought in more 457 visa workers than under the Abbott and Turnbull governments."
Labor's revived 457 visa campaign has been backed by One Nation as well as LNP MP George Christensen from the Mackay-based seat of Dawson who has called on Mr Turnbull for a complete ban on 457 visas in central and North Queensland.
However, the reality is there is a shortage in workers in some key industries in region, including fruit picking and meatworks, according to Mr O'Dowd, who said some employers could not get locals to fill the jobs.
"The manager at the Biloela meatworks says any Australian who walks through the door would get a job, but he hasn't got too many Australians walking through the door," he said.
"Australians could be doing some of these jobs but they don't want to come and do the seasonal work. They'd rather stay in western Sydney on the dole."
Australian Workers Union organiser Zac Beers, who was the Labor candidate in Flynn in the July election, said there were legitimate concerns about 457 visas in the region, mainly that the existing scheme was not rigorous enough.
"It's an issue that a lot of people are worried about. They are worried about locals missing out on jobs and people coming across on visa arrangements and get a leg-up," he said.
"For us, a lot of discussions were on making sure there was legitimate market testing before bringing in overseas labour. The current scheme is not rigorous enough."
About half of the 14,000 workers on the big LNG projects on Curtis Island were locals, while the rest were fly-in, fly-out or those on 457 visas. With construction winding down on the export hub, many Gladstone locals have headed to work on big gas projects in Darwin or Western Australia.
They are also pinning their hopes on a resurgent coal price kick-starting jobs in the Bowen and Surat Basins.
Labor may have made gains in Central Queensland using the 457 scare campaign, but One Nation also polled strongly in key electorates during the election campaign and is tipped to win a swag of seats at the 2018 state election.
One Nation secured 142,594, or 1.27 per cent, of the primary vote nationally and 5.48 per cent in Queensland.
It achieved double-digit first preference votes in a string of mostly regional Queensland seats in the July poll. The party lead by Pauline Hanson is aiming to replicate its success at the 1998 state election where it won 11 seats.
