jobs

Migrants taking jobs from Aussies: MP

March 2, 2010 by admin

(SMH) Temporary skilled migrants make up less than one per cent of the total labour market but constituted about 30 per cent of employment growth in Australia during the previous financial year. [..] ..Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson said using 457 temporary migrant visa holders to fill labour shortages meant young Australians were missing out on employment. "This approach of saying: 'Let's not worry about training our own and bring in 457 visas' is very short-sighted," he told AAP. "We ought to be training our own geologists, metallurgists, mining engineers and the like." read more

related: TodayTonight "Reverse racism"

Housing affordability plunges

March 2, 2010 by admin

(SMH) Soaring house prices, rising interest rates and a winding back of the first homeowners grant all contributed to housing affordability taking a nose-dive at the end of 2009. The deterioration was widespread in all capital cities and regional areas, with the largest falls recorded in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra, according to a Housing Industry Association (HIA)/Commonwealth Bank of Australia survey. read more

related: Hourly pay rates ex bonuses rose 0.6%

Union takes on Labor over 'cheap' foreign workers

February 14, 2010 by admin

(SMH) ONE of Australia's most powerful trade unions has set itself on a collision course with the Rudd government, backing a campaign against it over the controversial 457 visa scheme for temporary foreign workers. A report commissioned by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, to be released next week, will reveal the government has dropped the fundamental premise of the scheme, which is that employers must test the labour market before offering jobs to foreign workers. The author of the report, labour market and migration specialist Bob Kinnaird, writes that the Rudd government is no longer requiring employers to give preference to Australian workers, which he says ''goes further than even the Howard government's position'', which Labor had criticised when in opposition before 2007. read more

Beef import decision 'risks Aussie jobs'

February 6, 2010 by admin

(SMH) The federal government's decision to allow beef to be imported from countries that have had outbreaks of mad cow disease could put 300,000 people out of work in a week, a Senate inquiry has heard. [...] Veterinary surgeon Bob Steel told the inquiry once countries that have BSE were allowed to export beef, there was uncertainty surrounding how effective and thorough the overseas testing would be. "The only requirement for these 22 countries is that if they have a cohort of BSE cattle, that they test them, not all the others," Dr Steel said. "Without identification, how can we possibly know what's coming into the country." The US is not required to say how many cases of BSE they have, he said. read more

Cutting toilet paper duty 'bad for jobs'

January 17, 2010 by admin

Jobs in Australia could be lost if a decision to drop dumping duties imposed upon toilet paper imported from China and Indonesia stands, says a local manufacturer. [...] KCA has about 700 of its 1,500 employees engaged in the manufacture of tissue paper at Millicent in South Australia. KCA's general manager..Ross Hearne, said on Thursday that a significant barrier to unfair trade (the dumping duties) had been removed. Dumping occurs when the export price of a product is less than the "normal" value of the same product in the domestic market of the country of export. [..] "It's extremely difficult for local producers to compete with those prices." read more

flashback: Woolworths employees boycott "Select" China and Indonesian made toilet paper