Labor leader Bill Shorten has pledged that if his party forms government it will establish a new ‘SMART’ — Science, Medicine, Academia, Research and Technology — visa category.

Labor today criticised the federal government’s plan to scrap 457 visas, which have been widely used in the tech sector, and replace them with a new class of temporary visa.

A statement issued by the opposition leader, shadow employment minister Brendan O’Connor and shadow immigration minister Shayne Neumann described the government’s changes to the 457 visa as a “con job”. The new short and medium stay visas are effectively just a rebadging of 457 visas, the trio argued.