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Government policies are not, should not be immutable. They must change to meet changing circumstances. To put it very simply, the case for the General Labour Importation Scheme has been eroded in recent years by changes in the labour market. The labour market has changed, and government policy must change with it.
That is why I announced in my Policy Address to the Legislative Council that we will be phasing out this Scheme as the contracts of imported workers lapse between now and the end of the year. But this does not mean that there is no longer a case for any imported workers. To get the best out of our economy, we need to be able to import workers to meet particular requirements, to overcome specific shortages. I therefore announced at the same time that we will be introducing a smaller scale and more targeted Supplementary Labour Importation Scheme which I believe will meet the practical needs of the business community and the economy.
I know there are employers who are very concerned about finding the workers they need to carry on their businesses successfully. There are also many workers and their trade union representatives who believe that there should be no importation of labour at all while there are any local people without jobs. The Government has to devise and revise its policies with the simple objective of securing the best interests of the whole community. And I think in this instance the best interests of the whole community lie in:
getting our unemployed workers back into jobs; and
* retaining the ability to import workers to meet particular requirements which
cannot be met locally.
I believe that with the new Supplementary Labour Scheme, we have got the balance about right. Having said this, I was not at all surprised that most of the questions I got last week in my Legislative Council Question Time were on this issue. And I guess the same may be true today.
Let me remind you. We've put these proposals forward for discussion. They are not plucked out of the air. They are the outcome of a serious and comprehensive review. We want if we possibly can to achieve a consensus between employers, employees and legislators. We'll work for a broadly agreed policy and hope that we can meet that goal.