AUSTRALIA:Labour Shortage May Derail Speeding Economy

AUSTRALIA:Labour Shortage May Derail Speeding Economy
Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY, Australia May 4 (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 guest workers 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 the labour downfall.

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 to fill the vacancies.

While industry and employers tend to favour the latter, the trade unions argue that young Australians must be given better training to help plug the skills and labour shortfall.

''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 annum 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 illegal workers, mainly from Latin America, Middle East and Asia, are now working in farms across Australia.

The daily revealed that contractors were providing the labour to farms around Griffith in north- western New South Wales which is 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.

Last week, immigration authorities raided a farm near Robinvale in Victoria's far north-west and arrested 35 foreign workers without proper papers. The group included 26 Malaysians, six Singaporeans and three Chinese. John Davies, the regional manager of poultry producer Barrters in Griffith told the 'Herald' that it was hard and dirty work inside the poultry farms and many locals didn't want to do it. ''Of the 550 workers in our processing plant, there are 53 different nationalities,'' boasted Davies, adding that his company has lobbied the government to change immigration laws to allow migrant workers to come in. Griffith, which is in the agricultural heartland of Australia and the fastest growing city in inland Australia, has between 600 to 700 job vacancies at any one time across all industries, according to the City Council's economic development officer Stephen Joyce.

The government has recently announced that the skills migration programme will be expanded this year to 120,000 visa approvals. But, Labor Shadow Minister for Immigration Laurie Ferguson argues that ''drastically increasing the migrant intake is only a quick fix''. ''Australia does not necessarily need to import all skilled workers from overseas. We need to be cautious, and only in the most drastic circumstances would this be an option,'' he told IPS.

''What is disturbing to see is that the government has created the situation where a staggering 40 percent of people (young Australians) who start their apprenticeship, don't complete their training,'' he pointed out, arguing that more funds should be allocated for technical college training.

Ferguson said that his opposition Labor Party would push for the introduction of a foreign worker photo ID card to track down illegal workers, as well as to crack down on possible exploitation of foreign workers in Australia. (END/2005)
source : www.ipsnews.net