Liverpool said:1-eyed,
If you want to talk about priorities....how about giving jobs to OUR unemployed BEFORE we start hiring labour in from the Pacific islands?
http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/aboriginal-leader-slams-pacific-island-labour-plan/1253157.aspx
As far as i'm concerned....instead of stopping payments to parents who have kids that wag school (mind you, good idea...wonder if it will filter down to the Aboriginal families where wagging school is rife under the banner of protecting 'cultural identity'?)....why doesn't the Government look at stopping payments to people who are fit, healthy, and been unemployed for longer than 6 months who refuse to go and do this fruit-picking.......fruit-picking that the Government is prepared to spend $$$ on importing people to do?
And with the downturn int he economy...what will happen to these people once they are here and then lose their job?
Let me guess......dole queue....gee, maybe the Chairman can have a "QueueWatch" to go along with his Fuelwatch, Grocerywatch, and whatever 'watch' he has going because there seems to be a lot of watching, but not much doing!
But the master plan is votes...that is what counts.
If you are a Pacific Islander....living on some God-foresaken hole in the middle of the ocean with no prospects and you get given the opportunity to come to Australia, all expenses paid, to work and start a life here.....who would you vote for next election???
Vote 1 Chairman Rudd!
1eyedtiger said:The Australian government works for Australian citizens first and foremost and that's where the priorities should lie. Agree with you here. The needs of Australians should be at the top of the list. The wants of Australians come next. Then a tax cut.
I don't agree with forcing people to be fruit pickers though. It's up to each industry to make employment an attractive proposition. It's all very well that farmer's want their crops processed but they don't seem to want to pay fair wages for the work being performed. Solution is simple, improve wages and conditions and more people might be prepared to go and be fruit pickers and there wouldn't be a problem.
Liverpool said:But as I said in my previous post....if you are an Islander and have been given the opportunity to come to Australia by the Chairman, who would you vote for in the next election?
He is simply buying votes.
Liverpool said:I think if people are out of work for a long period and cannot get their desirable/preferable career, then they should be forced to do fruit-picking if that is an area that is underemployed.
Why should people be able to sit back on welfare, bleeding the Australian taxpayer dry, just because they cannot get their perfect career?
And then to top it off.....we have this ridiculous notion of importing workers to do a seasonal job, and I'm tipping they will then be added to the Australians already on welfare once their employment ceases.....so there we have more for the taxpayer to fork out as well as increasing pressure on our resources (housing, food, water, medical, transport, etc)
But as I said in my previous post....if you are an Islander and have been given the opportunity to come to Australia by the Chairman, who would you vote for in the next election?
He is simply buying votes.
Tiger74 said:You cannot vote if you are on a working visa Liverpool.
1eyedtiger said:It is my understanding that these islanders can only be employed in the horticultural industry for seasonal work and can only stay in Australia for 6 months of the year.
1eyedtiger said:I never said that it was ok for people to bum around on the dole. The unemployed are required by centrelink to look for work. If they don't, they don't get their welfare. You can't force people into the workforce.
Would you be as enthusiastic about if it you were suddenly unemployed (no fault of your own, of course ;D ) and told by centrelink that you had to relocate and work long, hard hours for little reward?
1eyedtiger said:Like I said, provide decent wages and conditions and perhaps they wouldn't have as much trouble finding people and they wouldn't have to go crying to the government to get some slave labour from overseas.
Liverpool said:The Chairman will change the rules when it suits.
They'll get granted a 'special' visa and then allowed permanent residency...you just watch.
Tiger74 said:Do you check under the bed at night just to make sure there are no Red's hiding out under there?
Tiger74 said:Do you check under the bed at night just to make sure there are no Red's hiding out under there?
Liverpool said:You only write this because you know I am on the money.
Redford said:I think Liverpool is right and Tiger74 is wrong.
Tiger74 said:For the record I actually think these guys who are being granted special visas will not get an exemption, and if any do get permanent residency it will be because they are in industries Australia is targeting in its PR program.
I believe once again you are trying to eventually steer this to a race issue, but of course you will once again be all shocked and say its not just islanders and east timorese you have issues with, despite the fact they are the only locations being discussed for this program.
evo said:How can you tell? I'm yet to see 74 get off the fence on any issue
He's pro-chimp i suppose,so thats something.
evo said:Disagreeing with Scouser is not really a political position,thats about as common as being Pro-chimp. ;D
Liverpool said:Aboriginal leader slams Pacific Island labour plan
26/08/2008 2:14:00 PM
An Aboriginal leader in northwest New South Wales says a lack of transport and accommodation is stopping Aborigines from taking seasonal farm work such as fruitpicking and cotton chipping.
Michael Anderson, who speaks for the 16 clans of the Gumilaroi Nation in northwest NSW and southwest Queensland, has slammed the Federal Government's plans to fly in Pacific Islanders to fill the labour shortage on farms.
Mr Anderson said the pilot program, due to start later this year, was "a total farce".
"We have 90pc unemployment in the rural areas of NSW and southwest Queensland and they want to fly people across the waters to work in the industries that are within driving time for the people out here in the bush - what a sick joke," Mr Anderson said.
"If the federal government are prepared to arrange transport from the Pacific islands, then surely they can arrange for buses for our local workers."
http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/aboriginal-leader-slams-pacific-island-labour-plan/1253157.aspx
I think if you are unemployed and have 'looked for work' for 6 months....yet the Government are importing workers, then you haven't looked hard enough, in my opinion.
And if I found myself unemployed and after 6 months of looking I had not found a job then I fully deserve to go where the Government feels I need to go if they are the one's paying my way.