Horus
Here here and well said. It is time for Australian citizens to crack down on these people who have so much assitance from `certain political areas.`
Oh and of course Horus WE pay for all their legals as well did you know that.
Take a good look at the funding into the discrimantion people.

See where it comes from. Have you noticed Terry Orgermans clients over the years not many ordinary true blue Aussies are scooped up that I have noticed.

If meat workers or fruit pickers or farm hands want to go and work and make some money for their familes back home thats a win win for Australia and those familes.

I cant see a real problem either after three or four years if they can afford to buy some land to raise their family.
In fact ALL migrants IF accepted should ONLY go to regional areas to WORK.
To run farms like grandfathers fathers and mothers did. We should give them the same chance to dig and toil. Why not give the people WANTING to WORK more consideration than the politicaly advised ones =who arrive to flood the cities and group together with non English speaking people who dont want to work but want want want from this country.
They want free housing .They want Free Doctors. Where my lawyer they will say. I know my rights. All this encouraged and spurred on by some "with a political agenda to over throw the Government".

Another poster told me that ALP years ago introduced a policy that Government did not talk about migrants coming to Australia at election time.
Thats outragous! The Australian people WANT to talk about this. As a matter of fact its a number one issue with many.

Look if people will come and work in country areas where Aussies are too lazy to.- GOOD.

"If immigration carried an economic advantage for Australians I would be all for it,"

Fester, the problem is that you see the issue as black and white,
which its not. There are various kinds of migration. Refugees,
family etc, all heading for Sydney or SE Queensland are a different
kettle of fish and cause different problems to skilled migrants
heading for the oil, gas industries, or other export industries
in West Australia. They are increasing Australian wealth, unlike
those on the dole in Sydney etc.

Innovation is happening all the time, agriculture and mining in
Australia are leaders in their fields in that regard.

However capital today is mobile and increasingly so is industry.
If its too hard in Australia, move the whole lot offshore.
Fewer and fewer companies today even own the buildings they
occupy. They are rented for good reasons.

Sadly we actually tax labour through payroll tax, no wonder more
and more industries say stuff it and go overseas.

Yabby,

You wrote, "given you Eastern Staters are unable to pay your own bills."

I can assure you that with my very modest standard of living and my hard work that I pay all my own bills. Perhaps you should not assume that all Easterners are enjoying high incomes and profligate life styles.

Anyhow, don't kid yourself. West Australians aren't creating the wealth. All that is happening is that, without any regard for future generations, or the health of the planet, our bounty of finite non-renewable mineral resources is being wastefully extracted and exported at an accelerating rate. At this rate, tens of millions of years worth of accumulated wealth will be all gone in decades if the world's life-support system does not collapse first.

---

Yabby wrote, "Australia is still running a huge current account deficit and you want to hold up exports?"

Just hang on a minute.

Are you now trying to tell me that those we had been led to believe were managing our economy so well over the previous decades have brought about a situation where, unless we import millions more workers into a country running out of water and arable land, and which is having native vegetation stripped and native fauna threatened with extinction in order to house our existing population, that our economy will collapse?

Now, wouldn't you say that the Australian public are owed an explanation?

---

You wrote, "Working on a meatchain for 40 grand is slave labour?"

I did not say that. This is what I wrote:

"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."

This not the first time you have misrepresented me on OLO.

I also note you have dodged the question: Is $40K the base salary or is it what workers can hope to earn with shift penalties, overtime, and weekend work?

Also, let's also not forget that the cost of (...tobecontinued)

(...continuedfromaabove) living, particularly housing, has shot through the roof in WA.

In the Eastern Australia there is plenty of casualised backbreaking manual work that pays a pittance. It will only be a matter of time before that trend spreads to West Australia, particularly if immigration is not brought back under control.

In the U.S. meatworkers once enjoyed decent conditions, but that has changed to become the situation that described above (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1040#18568), thanks to employers' ability to exploit large numbers of desperately poor immigrants. How long do you expect us to believe that wages in the meat industry will remain at $40K if employers' demands for unlimited immigration are agreed to? How long until the supply drives all of us back to the living standards of those that now exist in the US meat industry or even lower (see below)?

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Belly wrote: "slavery is dead isn't it?"

Then, how would you describe these working conditions that immigrant Burmese workers in Thailand have to endure:

In the industrialised Samut Sakhon "trafficked Burmese workers have been found working between 17 and 22 hours per day for as little as AU$10 per month, in the Ranya Paew export seafood factory. ...

"One woman peeled 18-20kg of shrimps per day for which the official rate set at 10 baht (approximately AU$0.37). But her female agent argued that agent's fees and the cost of bedding and food, gloves and hygiene facilities had to be deducted from her wage. She did not receive a wage for the first three months. Anyone, male or female, trying to escape, was beaten in front of others by guards patrolling the factory." (from "Mind the traffic" in the Spring 2007 edition of Dissent Magazine (http://www.dissent.com.au) by Melody Kemp.)

Workers suffered other humiliations including: for women, having their hair shaved, constant surveillance by CCTV and having guns held to their heads if they were considered slack.

Workers who complain often face deportation.

This, and worse, are the sorts of conditions that millions of workers around the world face today. If this is not slavery, Belly, then what term would you use?

"unless we import millions more workers into a country running out of water and arable land,"

Who is talking of importing millions of workers? Australia btw is
not running out of arable land, we have more then we need.

The problem is, if we don't generate enough exports to pay for
our import bills, then we'll have to sell the assets we do have,
like land and mines, to pay for those bills.

You, along with all Aussies, rely partially on imports to lead your
cushy lifestyle. How much did you contribute to exports last year?
Most likely you are relying on somebody like me, and other
West Australians to do it for you. When it comes to the global
economy, you are unable to make a living in the
Eastern States.

Meatworkers make a base salary of around 40G. I did not follow
up on your question, as I felt it was trivial. As was your
overdramatisation of the meat industry. Its far safer then many
industries using highly toxic compounds. Smart employers rotate their
staff to avoid rsi, hard jobs are automated. What biological hazards
that arn't vaccinated against? Dagget, you sound like a drama queen :)

The meat industry has clearly stated that Aussies will be trained
first and employed first. But if they don't want the jobs, why
should farmers shoot their livestock and bury them in a hole, as
some nutcase over east has their tits in a tangle over 457s?

Housing in regional WA is cheap, its Perth that is expensive.

Please do not ever think skills shortage is only in mining or remote areas.
Civil construction in the eastern states has imported English skilled engineering ,because we do not have enough.
Site supervision is in the hands of people well into their 60,s, a gap exists between them and the next generation.
I just can not now or ever agree with the views expressed here on migrants.
If you carefully look you will find some claims they are little more than infectious disease on legs!
And want only to bludge on us Aussies, the reverse has been proving true.
People from Europe have achieved a great deal in short times, and showed us layed back Aussies how to do it.
I wounder how reference to Burma got into a thread about Australian skills/ worker shortage?
Coming from convict stock my family has wed people from European country's and each is proud and happy.
Australia will grow, we can improve our climate in some ways, and we will grow.
The problems are real the solutions are there let us explore them, mining towns are currently often fly in fly out but some may be quite happy to make a home in outback Australia , we should not stand in their way.