The "457 visa" allows businesses facing skills shortages to employ labour from overseas, but has been slammed by unions amid claims that bosses were abusing it and local workers were missing out.
"The 457 visa is abolished. It will be replaced by a new system that will be manifestly, rigorously, resolutely conducted in the national interest to put Australians and Australian jobs first," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday.
"That's our commitment. Australian jobs, Australian values."
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed the changes.
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"Public confidence in the skilled migration system is vital, and this announcement will help to achieve that confidence," said acting chief Jenny Lambert.
But the Labor opposition, which has long called for reforms to the 457 visa scheme to protect local workers, said the changes did not go far enough.
"If you're asking me what do I think about renaming one category of visa into two different categories of visas, well that's just shifting deckchairs isn't it, on the proverbial sinking ship," its leader Bill Shorten said today.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said on Twitter the reforms were "more like a name change, and re-tune for the racist dog whistle".
The four-year visa would be replaced by a two-tier system - valid for either two years or four years - of skilled temporary work permits, and would include tighter requirements for language and work experience.
Some 200 jobs would be cut from the list of eligible professions.
There were 95,758 holders of the 457 visas in Australia as of the end of September, according to immigration data, less than one per cent of the workforce.
Tech executives, whose companies were expected to be hard hit, said the changes would hit growth and increase costs.
Media reported that a foreign worker tax on companies to fund skills-training for local staff could also be introduced in the annual budget in May.
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