Australian Industry Group members and the government are not on the same page when it comes to the proposed reforms to the highly controversial 457 visa program.

Employers are accusing the government of politicising the debate on the issue, apparently perpetuating fictitious stories of policy abuse to justify reforms to the program.

Earlier, Labor has proposed changes to the 457 visa scheme that will oblige bosses to exhaustively try all means to employ Australians before looking into hiring foreign workers.

Business owners have expressed opposition to this, saying that the new demand for labour market testing will only burden them with tedious compliance requirements.

"The combination of the skilled occupation list of positions eligible for 457 sponsorship and declarations by businesses that they put hiring locally and training locally before recruiting foreign workers should be enough," Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Innes Willox said.

Ms Willox added that the government is pursuing these reforms amid its failure to provide a concrete proof that there is indeed abuse to the existing 457 visa scheme.

Part of the reforms is the increase in the number of inspectors by ten times more, allowing Labor to gain expanded power in monitoring strict compliance.

These changes are said to be initiated in the wake of consistent news on grave abuses to the scheme.

Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor pointed corruption to the fact that 457 visas have since doubled in the hospitality industry, and that the Australian Hotels Association is actually pressing to lower the $51,400 minimum wage to enable employers to use the scheme more exhaustively.

"The totality of the government's reforms will close loopholes in the current legislative and policy settings to ensure that the program can only be used by appropriately skilled persons and to fill genuine skills shortages as was intended," Mr. O'Connor told parliament.

While employers opposed the legislation, the union movement, on the other hand, has expressed support to the reforms.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions said that it was time to expose and mend the exploitation of 457 visa workers.

"This is nothing short of a racket involving migration agents, involving loan sharks, involving shonky employers that are exploiting workers on our shores, which is just totally unacceptable," he said.

Adam Bandt, workplace relations spokespersons of Greens, likewise echoes the majority sentiment that amendments to the 457 visas have long been overdue.

"On the face of it, the government seems to have finally listened to unions and the Greens and are moving to require employers to advertise locally before bringing in workers from overseas," he said in a statement.

Meawhile, some sectors are being quite wary about the timing of the legislation. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive Peter Anderson said the subject needs to be closely scrutinised first by a parliamentary committee.

"Making skilled migration policy a political and parliamentary football in a pre-election environment is completely the wrong approach," he said in a released statement.

"The bill smacks of not just election year politics, but politics on the run."

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