SM is scrounging around in the cellar to find something that does not exist.

Hi 579,

Thanks for that suggestion - to put my next au pair down in the cellar, it's been lying unused for twenty-odd years now. She'll have to clean it out first - ha ha (joke), once we get around to repairing the sewer pipes that run across the ceiling. Getting domestic labour is a never-ending series of expenses, isn't it ?

Seriously, we should look after our servant class - good help is so hard to find these days. The bogan class has lost all of those valuable arts, in their crass pursuit of ever-more consumer goods: where is their sense of decades of devoted service like it used to be in the old days ?

Joe

Shadow,
Did any of Di Natale's au pairs allege underpayment? Or that they were required to work longer than agreed?

If so, do you have a link?
If not, why are you making baseless accusations?

Hi Aidan,

You're right, why does anybody think that au pairs work a full seven-and-a-half-hour-day ? Up at six to get breakfast ready for the family, and then what ? A bit of washing and cleaning, perhaps a bit of baby-minding, but the day is theirs, until it's time to prepare for the evening meal, clean up afterwards, and again, the evening is their own. Hardly seven and a half hours, even if it is seven days a week.

And for that bit of work, they get food and board, AND $ 150 a week to do with whatever they like.

Clearly, the Greens have a much more enlightened policy on the employment of unskilled labour than any other of the Right-wing, capitalist-oriented parties. If they gain the balance of power, in a coalition government with Labor, we can expect some attention to their enlightened policies on overseas and unskilled labour.

Cheers,

Joe

It’s reported today that Di Natale did not keep timesheets for the work done by his nannies, who were earning $3.75 an hour cash for a 40 hour week.

For someone that is supposedly is spruiking for the underdog, he is looking increasingly like a privileged individual who relies on cut priced labour to run his family.

Hypocrisy thy name is Greens.

Agreed.

So many politicians these days would feel perfectly at home swapping parties. I think many of them only run for the party they do because that party holds the seat they live in.

I fear the day might come when political parties might swap politicians mid term.

Labour and liberal are the two wings on the same bird-of-prey.

Hi Joe,

The hours of au pairs in general are irrelevant. No doubt some work 8 or more hours in a day. But Richard Di Natale hired his on the basis of 25 hours work per week. Is there any evidence that he was overworking them? AFAICT the accusation they were working a 40 hour week originated with Shadow!