Rechtub your understanding is limited, very much so.
Your plea here and in your other thread, is in fact to Socialize the cost/ Privatize the profits.
I hope those Unions that are going to survive and thrive, as opposed to those bound to die.
Continue to progress with the times.
Mr Howe's is worth ten ,any ten, of the current Conservatives posing as Liberals.
But in my view wrong here.
Are many aware we will need in the next 5 years about 100.000 in these industry's?
Or that that figure is laughably understated?
Do we care to under stand just how many such workers are in other country's, and help those country's prosper?
WE CAN NOT SUPPLY them!-yet!
About 15% to 20% will need to come from over seas.
My fellow travelers ALP voters, must confront the lie, Gillard knew she knows this morning,right or wrong class warfare on Gina is stupid!
Class warfare is the private property of Liberals and their Pup the Nationals, our roll is defense not attack in the silly game.
Last 4.5 percent includes some truly useless never want to work folk, unskilled and not looking for skills , and folk wanting a job at their front door.
Reality time folks.

Yabby, do you actually know anyone who works in the mining industry or wants to work in the mining industry?
You sound very much like you don't.
Try and get a job in the mines. Just as a challenge that even YOU can do it. Or at least speak with a person who is trying to just that and has or wants to do a training course just to be able to apply.
And comparing Australian wages with wages in the USA is like comparing apples to oranges to use a cliche. If you think it is so great in the USA why not move there?

Yvonne, as it happens where I live is near a town where a great many
of the workers are fly in fly out workers in the mining industry.
Others even drive to Australia's largest goldmine, in Boddington,
WA. My nephew works in the mining industry. The publican's wife
even flies in and flies out to the North, to clean accomodation
up there.

The largest shortage that we have is engineers, thousands of them.
People aren't going to learn engineering or gain their electrician's
ticket or diesel mechanic ticket, by doing a short course.

The comparison with the USA is a good one. It shows why so many
of our youth think that they don't need to bother with a qualification,
if their mates are dragging in big dollars without one.

Yabby,

Real unemployment is far greater than the official figure; how much greater depends on your definition. Roy Morgan Research says it is double the official figure, while the Australia Institute says that the official figure only counts about a third of the unemployed, that real unemployment is 14.3%, and 20.5% if you include underemployed people who want more hours. See my links in Rehctub's thread below this one. Australia has the lowest rate of unemployment benefits in the OECD, and even very conservative business groups and economists such as Judith Sloan have called on the Gillard government to raise them. It simply isn't credible that people would rather live on a dole that was far below the poverty line than take a well paid mining job. More likely, as Rehctub said on his thread, you can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job. Apprenticeships for the skilled trades aren't exactly easy to get. While mining engineers and the like are very well paid, there are issues of job security. From my own student days, I recall geologists who were trying to retrain as science teachers, as the mining industry was in a downturn.

While there no doubt is a place for some foreign temporary workers, especially highly skilled professionals, and Gina Rinehart may be doing the right thing by offering a lot of training places, there is no question that 457 visas are abused by employers wanting cheap labour.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/small-business/abuses-of-457-scheme-multiplying/story-e6frg9hf-1111118197338

No matter how many rights the visa holders have on paper, they are useless if the foreign workers don't know about them, or are too scared or vulnerable to invoke them, especially if they want sponsorship for permanent residency. The government also has to be willing to enforce the law.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/employers-avoid-fines-despite-visa-abuse-sanctions-20110725-1hx98.html

There are similar issues with H1B visas for temporary foreign workers in the US. The employers love them because they can pay less than the prevailing wages, and the workers are indentured. There is even an immigration law firm that runs seminars on how to avoid hiring well qualified US workers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

Yabby, you touch on the other problem, that being that our unskilled, or, low skilled, for the benefit of a few, are simply over paid in this country.

Why on earth will a kid tie themselves into an apprenticeship at low wages, when their mates get much higher wages without the training, without the theory, without the threat of failure.

The fist step to addressing our skill shortage is to introduce work for the dole. No work, no pay, period! Even those with disabilities (not major) can answer a phone, or use a computer.

You must remove the attraction of doing nothing before you can address these issues.

Then, when you lower the unskilled wage, the dole doesn't have such an appeal.

Of cause the knives will be out for that commen, but people must face reality, or accept the fact that Australians may well become unemployable to some extent.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/howes-crying-wolf-on-foreign-workers-20120528-1ze6y.html

Belly, much as you sing the praises of Paul Howe, clearly many don't agree with you.

Divergence, the way I understand it, the way that we calculate
unemployment is the way it is done internationally, so that comparisons are valid. I am sure that many would like more hours,
but many are also quite happy to just work part time, enough to get
by. What they actually say when being interviewed is another story.

I am sure that some 457 employers abuse the system. Tell me a law
which is not abused by some. It is up to Govt to enforce laws, or
they are clearly not going to be much value.

One of the problem that we have is that most people seem unwilling to
move to where the jobs are. In WA the situation is pretty hopeless
right now. I spoke to a bloke who runs a farm supplies business the
other day. They have 6 branches and five of them have vacancies that
they cannot fill. Working in a farm supply store is hardly highly
skilled. If things are not so flash in Sydney or Melbourne, people
are going to have to look beyond their backyards for a job or
they will have to come from elsewhere