AUSTRALIA
...And Similar Sentiments in Australia
by Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IPS) — Faced with an acute labour shortage that has left construction companies unable to bid for projects and farmers watching fruit rot on trees, Australia might have little choice but to seek guest workers.
Canberra seems serious about a scheme to grant foreigners short-term visas to work as low-skilled workers. Also, those on working-holiday visas would be able to extend them to meet demand for labour. This is despite the idea being slammed by certain politicians as ''against the national ethos''.
With unemployment at a 28-year low of 5.1 percent, Australian industry has urged the government to introduce guest workers to fill a record 148,300 positions in manufacturing, industry and agriculture.
''Australia is in the grip of record low unemployment. When unemployment is low, it is hard to find labour,'' complained Treasurer Peter Costello in a recent speech to an industry conference dinner.
But now, there is a debate on whether this local shortage could be plugged by the government funding more apprenticeships for young Australians and encourage the trainees to stay on the job with better wages and conditions, instead of importing labour from poorer countries.
''There's been a blurring of apprenticeship schemes,'' Paul Bastian, New South Wales state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, told IPS. ''The government gives subsidies for short term training of 12 months or less to companies, who in turn use this money to have cheap labour, as opposed to the four-year traineeships that used to be the norm before,'' revealed Bastian.
The unionist argues that the training base for young Australian apprentices used to be the government's large infrastructure projects. But ever since these projects became privatised or outsourced, said Bastian, the training base has shrunk considerably. ''The private sector has not taken up the slack because they are interested purely on profits and the bottom line.''
Meanwhile, a federal government economic modelling report released last week argues that an increased migrant intake will help to cause a steady rise in the skills level of Australia's workforce and make each citizen 703 Australian dollars (546 U.S. dollars) better off by 2022.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announced recently that working- holiday visa holders would be allowed to apply for an extension to stay in the country if they have done harvesting work for at least three months in regional Australia. The working holiday visa programme has grown significantly from 50,000 applicants per year in the mid-1990s to over 100,000 this year. Most of these visa holders come from North America, Europe and Japan.
Meanwhile, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' reported last week that increasing numbers of undocumented workers, mainly from Latin America, Middle East and Asia, are working in farms across Australia.
The daily revealed that contractors were providing labour to farms around Griffith in north-western New South Wales, a major farming area in Australia. They have been working about 10 hours a day for a daily wage of between 80 to 90 Australian dollars (62 to 70 U.S. dollars) a day.
Many of these workers seem to have been brought there on three-month visitor visas that forbid them to work.
Since July last year, immigration authorities have stepped up raids on workplaces, farms and homes, and nabbed over 21,000 undocumented workers. (END/Copyright IPS)
