The Department of Immigration and Border Protection published their review of the Subclass 457 Programme recently this September 2014 and it contains the results of the review that the department has done to the integrity of the said programme. The program has allowed overseas workers to work in Australia for 18 years and has filled up a lot of needed positions in various industries, helping Australia to cater its needs of various skills.

But, according to ABC Rural, the recent review and the Immigration Department has been questioned by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and says that the Immigration Department is "virtually impossible to deal with on the issue". Michael Catchpole, CEO of AusIMM says that the list of jobs that can be applied for the 457 does not reflect the radical change that the industry has undergone in the last few years.

"The 457 Programme is always been intended as a short term skills shortage measure and we don't believe that inclusion of any minerals profession, whether they be mining engineer, metallurgical o or materials engineers, or indeed geologists, should be included on the current 457 list." - Michael Catchpole, CEO of AusIMM

Michael Catchpole says that the unemployment amongst geologists are 15 percent and above nationally. And mining engineers, and metallurgical and chemical engineers are closing in on 10 percent. He says that with the high unemployment rate of Australian mineral professions, they shouldn't be included in the 457 list.

With that said, according to ABC Rural, the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) argues that the said professions should still be included in the list and questions the number of unemployed engineers and geologists claimed by AusIMM.

"That looks at the medium term, and we simply don't know enough about what we will happen in five years' time, so we cannot remove them from the list.

It's very hard to bring it back on to the list and it's an option to bring in skilled engineers as needed.

And it's not all engineers or geoscientists out of work. The AusIMM released a report with those figures and remember they apply to their members." - Dr. Gavin Lind, Director of Training and Education at MCA

According to ABC Rural, Dr Gavin Lind says that the 457 list take into account the medium-term requirement, not short-term fluctuations in the jobless rate.