A new bill has been introduced into the Australian senate that is designed to protect the rights of foreign temporary workers.
The new bill will apply to all those workers on the temporary long-stay visa, which allows employers to sponsor overseas workers to work and live temporarily in Australia.
It could make life a lot easier for around 60,000 foreign workers - the number that were granted this type of visa last year so that employers suffering from a labour shortage could access offshore resources.
Senator Chris Evans, a supporter of the bill, said: "The temporary working visa scheme is only sustainable if the community is confident that overseas workers are not being exploited or used to undermine local wages and conditions."
The worker protection bill aims to protect workers from exploitation by increasing the powers to monitor and investigate employers for exploitation and introduce harsh penalties for employers found breaching their labour agreements.
If it is approved it could improve information-sharing throughout government departments and help better define the obligations of the sponsor and employer.
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