"The argument that people from outside Australia can be made to accept such miserably-paid occupations and be made to go on doing so indefinitely without posing a threat to the wage levels of the rest of the community is not only illogical, but implicity racist."

You miss the point completely Dagget. There are jobs for around
40K$ a year, like meatworkers, which Aussies simply don't want.

Given that Aussies don't want or need those jobs, it makes
perfect sense to offer them to people from other countries, on
a contract basis. Seasonal migrant workers have been around in
Europe for decades, in a win win situation. Not everybody
wants to live here. Many prefer their own cultures, friends,
etc, they just want to make a quid. Given that they can make
here in a month, what they make in a year back home, it
makes perfect sense for us to give them that opportunity.
Everybody wins!

"Everybody wins!"

Umm.....Not these guys, Yabby.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/12/1189276810208.html

These schemes need close scrutiny, lest abuses spoil any potential benefits. Historical precedent suggests that the Simon Legrees of the world tend to poison the well.

Meatworkers wages are hardly a major cost anyway, Yabby. Meatworks could absorb greater wage costs, but thanks to the 457 visa they dont have to worry.

"Meatworkers wages are hardly a major cost anyway,"

The are actually THE major cost in putting a sheep down
a chain. Often more then the sheep is worth to the farmer.

As regards the exceptions on 457s, anything we humans do
will be misused, so we have to deal with those cases.

Some people abuse their partners, we haven't banned marriage
yet.

The point is, bar a few exceptions, 457s can be a win win
all round, so make perfect sense.

think, until Yabby is a little more specific about these unfilled jobs, which he says offer $40,000 PA, we need to take his claims with a grain of salt. In any case, even assuming that $40,000 is the base salary without shift penalty rates, weekend work or overtime, it doesn't sound particularly generous for work which wrecks most bodies well before retirement age and entails all sorts of biological hazards.

If anyone wants to know where uncontrolled immigration is likely lead us, read "Diet for Dead Planet" by Christopher D. Cook, written in 2004 and revised in 2006 (RRP AU$29.95). This is an account the whole food production system of the US, from the provision of seed, fertilisers and pesticides to farmers, to its sale to the consumer from supermarkets, and fast food outlets. I suggest you don't read it around meal times:

(start of excerpt from "Diet for a Dead Planet")

Behind the factories polished front, assembly lines churn 7,100 pigs into packaged product each day. It's not America's biggest meat-packing plant, but it is brutally efficient. Jose, a rib cutter, works with three others slicing rib plates into 14,200 pieces a day, that's 3,550 cuts made per person. "It's very tough," he says. "We usually take about three seconds for each rib, sometimes ten seconds if there's a lot of fat."

The workers here, mostly impoverished immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere and don't last much longer than the pigs. "Every week there are new workers and every week, others leave," says Jose, "In two weeks I have seen about two hundred people leave." They leave, he says, because the company keeps speeding up the production line. To protect its narrow margins, the company pushes the line to the human breaking point - and often beyond it.

(tobecontinued)

(continuedfromabove)

"When we first got here we were killing 5,000 pigs in ten hours," says Maria, a fifty four year old recruit from El Paso who worked at Premium Standard Foods (PSF) for more than one year, packing and lifting thirty pound boxes of pig-feet. "Now we the belt is at full blast with less people working on the line." We were doing pretty well when it was ten hours. Now they are trying to kill us by killing 7,100 in eight hours."

(daggett: The workers there are denied toilet breaks during the shift. One worker who had morning sickness said she hand been told to vomit into the garbage can next to the production line.)

Rivera, thirty four, winces as he tries to close his fist. He says he cuts thousands of chunks of fat each day without receiving any training or supervision. "Your wrists, elbows, arms - everything hurts," he says. "I'm young, and I don't want my arms to be messed up." Like Rivera, Jose feels pulses of pain when he closes his fist. But when asked if he visits the company doctor, Jose says, "No, because the company told us if we went to the company doctor, we would have to pay. None of the migrants have health insurance. It costs too much money.

(end of excerpt from "Diet for a Dead Planet")

This gives some idea of what many US workers have to compete against these days. Make no mistake. This is exactly how Australia will turn out if those calling for more 'guest' workers or immigrant workers get their way.

Fester you are carrying on a bit aren't you?
My posts highlight low wages is not the answer I seek, yours seem to not understand we can not use technology to replace workers.
And is that what you want?
Skills shortage is real we can not avoid the fact international trade is driving it and part of that trade is workers.
Review the Colombo plan, it was not just education, once we in the west thought we should help third world country's.
I work with members who are Australians working for an international firm.
It is high tec and world class, it took untrained country men and trained them, they are now world class, and will work all over the world.
Ordinary bush workers once taking home about $550 a week, now$180.000 a year, word record breaking outputs, and Asian bound.
That is one of thousands of skills story's, do you understand why such jobs are out there?
Some do not want a life on the road, skills are needed even in this wage bracket and it will get worse no matter what we do.
To tell the truth, say we must both up skill and make fairer use of the workers we import is not a sin.
Constantly I am baffled by the lefts ability to find fault but never answers.