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Pacific Island "Guestworkers"

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Julia

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Apparently Australia is about to embark on a programme of inviting workers from various Pacific Island countries to come here as guestworkers to pick fruit and do various other farm related labour which Australians refuse to do.

How can this be when we have thousands of people pulling the dole and doing nothing?

If this scheme comes to fruition, the people will be (rightfully) paid the same rate as Australian workers but will enjoy several additional benefits as an incentive to come. We will pay for their airfares and accommodation.

Shouldn't Australians who have been on unemployment benefits for, say, more than six months be expected to do this work before we import Pacific Islanders?
 
Can't really comment on your important points Julia except to agree. What is terrific is the pacific island communities that will have this injection of funds. That alone is worth a couple of smilies!

The unemployed coorie population from the Northern / North Western communities could also push for the work. HAs Noel pearson commented on the labour situation?
 
Stan 101 said:
C
The unemployed coorie population from the Northern / North Western communities could also push for the work. HAs Noel pearson commented on the labour situation?
Click to expand...
Hi Stan 101,
As far as I know Noel Pearson hasn't commented on this. Someone who has, however, is Emeritus Professor Helen Hughes, who in an ABC Radio programme last weekend was ranting about how disgraceful it is that these jobs have "not been offered" to the indigenous population!
The jobs have been there for the taking for anyone prepared to do the work.
It's the ultra left people like this woman who imo turn ordinary people off wanting to understand and help aboriginal people
 

Back in NZ.. 30 years or so back... I cleared Manuka..south of Auckland... with Fijian short term work visa entrants... for 10 pound an acre... and no mention was made of Moari unemployed at the time.... why is it now.. in Australia... that only indigenous unemployed are being called into question???
Or am I again missing the point??

Cheers
..........Kauri
 

Hi Julia and Kauri

Noel Pearson hasn't commented on this particular fruit picking example however Warren Mundine certainly has - hence the airplay and slant towards aboriginal jobs.

Mundine wants the dole stopped for aboriginals who are unwilling to look for and undertake work. Mundine has been impressive lately - I believe he even took a swipe at dopey Germaine Greers latest racist comments about Aboriginal men having an uncontrollable rage. Good on him and Noel Pearson.


Duckman
 
We applied for fruit picking work a couple of times when we were travelling about and had spare time and never got a reply. This was despite front page news saying how desparate farmers were for help. All the ads say backpacker welcome. I am not sure they even want Australians as you really need to be homeless. If you try to commute the petrol would cost more than your wages. You need to live in hostel bunk bed arrangements or tents. You cannot relocate family close because of the seasonal nature of the work. It is almost slavery.


If you see how many miners refuse to live in remote areas and have FIFO arrangements and compare wages to fruit pickers you can see the problem.

Aborigines do fruit picking but they need to send buses to collect them and return them home. Often miles away from the work and for possibly only short term seasonal work.

Australians want to live in cities with air conditioned offices and high wages. I think it great if aborigines can assist farmers but those living in cities are just as isolated from this type of work as many aboriginal communities.

Perhaps we simply need to pay more for our fruit so that the fruit pickers can get a decent wage.
 
One of my first jobs was was picking chillis, I used to love it at the time I used to get $1.50 a kilo, It's actually pretty good work if you are working with a good bunch of people.

I think alot of Aussies just don't want jobs though, There is work everywhere if you look for it,

I Find it strange that people who won't don't want to "Lower" them selves to do certain jobs don't have a problem with lowering themselves to stand in the dole line.
 
Spaghetti said:
Perhaps we simply need to pay more for our fruit so that the fruit pickers can get a decent wage.
Click to expand...

Thats the answer in part. And I think that there will soon be a time when food prices tip over that psychological price level in a similar way that petrol prices have. Then they become accepted that they will cost more forever. Wages for people in the industry will follow.
 
Aborigines would not do it. They get paid well enough for doing nothing. They have no motivation to break out of their cyclical existence which is so ingrained after thousands of years that it cannot be snapped.

That's why we have to go offshore.

Obviously there are not enough backpackers doing it at the moment either.

Bring in the Melanesians I say!

We need to find more talent for the Wallabies.
 
Hi Duckman,
Thanks for the info about Warren Mundine. Good to know Noel Pearson is not the only one determined to get his people to take some responsibility.

No reason, though, why aborigines should be the only group of dole recipients to be asked to do some work.

Re Germaine, yes, she has rather made herself look foolish with her Rage essay and subsequent discussion about it. She did a lot for women several decades ago but perhaps it's time to get out of the public arena now.
 
the jobs are not their for taking though Kennas. All a con. I know I tried. Those on the dole could not afford to do the work as you need capital to embark on harvest trail work.

I met some migrant workers on the road. A melbourne employment agency were shuttling them around. The agency were paid direct from farmers and paid for the accomodation, food and travel for the workers. The workers by what they said were given a little pocket money. Not sure if they were legal migrants but all were single men. No way could you take a family or even support a family udner such an arrangement. Not even sure if it is legal but even Australian getting ripped off by employers can do little about it unless they can afford a lawyer.

The bottom line is that farmers do not want Australian workers who require enough money to maintain both a home and travel expenses. If you give up your home to work on the road when the season is done you will have no means to find housing. Not sure even if you can claim the dole while travelling so weeks without work may mean no income at all.


Soltuion is not simple. Just an excuse to fingerpoint imo.
 
Spaghetti, thanks for the info. What you say makes sense given this industry cannot attract workers.

I have been hearing the debate on the radio but hadn't heard anything about the pay and conditions on offer. Seemed very illogical to me that a job with pay and conditions in line with Australian employment standards wouldn't attract workers .... therefore it seemed logical to me that to attract workers the pay and conditions need to be attractive. If workers cannot be found then the pay and conditions are not attractive ... hence the need to ship in those from less developed countries where pay and conditions are lower.

Opens up a nice tangled debate about work conditions and importing labour from offshore, maybe even free-trade zones...etc. It would seem to me that if we want to have an industry such as fruit growing (a very low value-added industry apparently) then bringing in offshore labour is unavoidable. Maybe doing so could be linked/offset in some way to the aid Australia provides to its less well-developed Pacific neighbours. More discussion topics.
 
Julia - in your OP you say "we" will pay for the airfares and accommodation of offshore workers. Any idea who the "we" is? Australian government, or the fruit growers themselves? If its the government, isn't this a subsidy to the industry, how does it impact on any free-trade agreements we have? Sorry, these questions are not directed at you, just me thinking out loud (typing out loud?)...
 
Spaghetti said:
the jobs are not their for taking though Kennas. All a con. I know I tried. Those on the dole could not afford to do the work as you need capital to embark on harvest trail work.
Click to expand...
Yes, my comment was slightly unthoughtful. How would aboriginies from northern Australia get down to the grape and fruit growing areas? And, how would they cope with being with their families? Impossible.

Sorry, touching on sarcastic now, and should be in another thread maybe. Or, perhaps it's linked. Pacific Islanders cross the shore to pick fruit, while aboriginies stay in Arnham Land, etc.

Maybe I'm not looking at this clearly right now, sorry.
 
kennas said:
How would aboriginies from northern Australia get down to the grape and fruit growing areas?
Click to expand...

Maybe whoever is to pay for the airfares and accommodation of the offshore workers could look at paying the expense of getting from northern Australia to these areas? Or can the subsidies only go to the fruit industry and not to aborigines?
 
Growers complain that they cannot get Australian workers,up until now mainly backpackers.
Some growers do provide some accommodation,free or subsidised camping.
If the pay is by piece work reasonable money can be made...if you are good.Quick hands,a good eye and a strong back.
Most struggle.
Like has been said ,I do not know of any employer that subsidises travel to their crop.
There is down time for rain,different fruit not quite ripe etc...and to work in with the weekly paid workers weekend work is not always available.
Some growers are not good at growing or maintaining a crop ,and they do not attract workers...these are the ones that will benefit most from the guestworker scheme.
 
uh?? fruit picking low paid ??? wtf ? .um i picked fruit for a year whilst travelling round oz 15 years ago .... was on $40 bucks an hour on average picking grapes in griffith , $ 26/hour average picking pears in shpeparton ........ all contract work ie you get paid for how much you pick THIS was 15 years back , i think the rates have risen too . mind you spose you only make a quid if you do the work , there lies a lesson
 
nunthewiser

I believe the average is $14/hour. Have heard people getting $200 a day one day and $40 the next or same crop same area paying vastly different rates due to quality of the crop.

As you came that long ago maybe before drought affected yields and quality.

Also were you denied working close to urban areas to satisfy visa agreement?

But the bottom line is would you do as a job not while travelling. This is the problem. Great for a holiday when you can walk away anytime or take off for a week of partying but different when you have a house/mortgage/kids/dogs etc.

The guest workers for example have to leave after 7 months.When work is slow the government does not have to pay them the dole. They just ship them home.
 
im an ozzie m8 , work wherever and for whoever , did notice in sheparton at time that none of the locals wanted to get hands dirty and left the picking to us transient types .......as far as the cash is concerned , i had ppl in the same vines earning around 8 an hour and others earning 60 . all depened on how u aproached the job really , most reckoned it was too hard so gave up the idea of making a decent buck before they even started . but hey the goverment happy to pay them for doin diddly so why would they bother ...... personally i reckon wherever the opportunity to place workers on contract the better , sorts out the rubbish and gives incentive to do a hard days work
p.s as far as doing the job for a living now .heck no im too fat and lazy these days and prefer just to rob ole grannies in the market instead
 
Ok just off the phone with Harvest Hotline. No picking work available atm in entire Queensland. None. Have tried a few times now, either no work available or they are just saying it. So we have been willing to do this work how many times now and never even get to filling out a form stage?

So can only speculate on what the real problem is but it is not from lack of people wanting to do the work.
 
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