Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has called out immigration minister Peter Dutton for "trolling" him over his views towards the newly-axed 457 visa program.
Dutton had a big crack at Cannon-Brookes on Channel Nine's Today on Wednesday morning, a day after the government axed the 457 program and replaced it with a new system of temporary skilled migration visas.
"Ok. Do you know of Mike Cannon-Brookes?" asked host Karl Stefanovic. "I think he is the co-founder of Atlassian. His tech company is bigger than Qantas. He said to The Australian that 457 Visas were essential for Australia and any move to make bridging the talent gap more difficult would be bad for the country."
"Well let's have a look at what work they’re doing in the local market," Dutton replied.
"How many young Australians are they employing? Are they going into schools looking for young kids to come and work in jobs? Are they employing mature aged workers who have found themselves out of a job elsewhere? Let's have a look at the details."
But here's the thing (and there's always thing). Cannon-Brookes made the comments about 457s last year, well before the government announced its crackdown.
Cannon-Brookes jumped on Twitter to call bullshit and ask sarcastically if he was being trolled for being "un-Australian".
Wow... 🔥 did I just get trolled by a govt minister as being un-Australian? https://t.co/tM9Qxs3het - this bullshit makes me mad...
He higlighted the fact the comments were made last year.
Firstly... I haven't given any quotes on 457s recently, so any attributions are from old articles (Nov 2016?) on "a… https://t.co/FMzUx8DNMj
Then the man worth an estimated $2.2 billion turned to the 457 changes made by Dutton and the government.
They removed occupations like actor, blacksmith, deer farmer, golfer, goat farmer & zookeeper 🤔 @Atlassian doesn't… https://t.co/jaA4GNjQiS
According to The Australian, Atlassian has 1000 workers in Australia, 25% of whom are on 457s.
(One might wryly comment there's an unaustralian joke in removing betting agency managers, shearers, jockeys and do… https://t.co/nBfn9u7VNu
In fact, Cannon-Brookes LIKES the look of the changes.
The tightenings in rules put in place actually look quite sensible to me (full reading coming soon)? ... https://t.co/3osZMxrYZG
Cannon-Brookes then gave Dutton some numbers of Australian jobs created and scholarships provided by Atlassian to Australian students. He capped it off with a #BringItOn.
And @PeterDutton_MP trolling? Us: 🇦🇺 Jobs created? 1000+. Grads hired? 100s. Scholarships? 100s. Kids CS classes?… https://t.co/46AaYiiaUU
He wasn't done on the topic of 457s though.
Our default position _is_ to see out an Australian for a job first... because it's cheaper and faster to do so. It… https://t.co/HXb1HrVxHz
But when the experience required isn't here, we need a program. That's what the 457 did & the new program aims to d… https://t.co/0UlSQa9xGY
This "new program" seems to remove large categories of jobs which are nothing to do with tech - industries without… https://t.co/1LRJTzOGMl
Cannon-Brookes then suggested Dutton and Turnbull dump the nationalism and the "Trumpy crap".
Let's separate nationalism and logic. This program seems logical. The "Australia first" Trumpy crap adds nothing bu… https://t.co/xPu6DHrBah
Finally, posting an image from where he was unloading his tweets.
And the irony of writing this when here is my current view. Count all 6 of them. #hopawaytrolls… https://t.co/RbcpYocn7l