Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

When did we become the stupid country?

By Naomi Anderson - posted Thursday, 31 May 2012


There are many political moments when I would like to comment, but feel insufficiently knowledgeable about the specifics of the mater at hand. The proposed import of 1700 skilled workers is not one such topic.

I have worked in human resources for 15 years, and specifically in the area of global mobility, for much of that time. It is common for large companies to need to move people around the globe to bring skills to a specific location. The two most common reasons are technical skills and company knowledge.

"Technical skills" is an argument only for the most specialised professionals. In very few cases is it impossible to find someone with the skill set required. Generally it is possible to find them within a few hundred kilometres, or within the country, unless the skill set is so specialised that there are very few such professionals in the world. In that case it is a matter of competing with other employers who also wish to utilise those skills. Such individuals earn upwards of $200,000 per annum.

Advertisement

It is highly unlikely that a mining operation needs 1700 of them. 17, or even 170, possibly. But 1700 seems a very high number.

The second category is company knowledge. The people who have been trained in the systems, processes and methodologies are necessary to do the job. These people are also highly paid, but are not freely available at market. They are transferred within the company, from location to location, because they know what makes the company tick.

The proposal to bring in 1700 migrant workers is not about this either.

Nor is it about the country of origin of the workers, or "preservation of Australian jobs". We live in a global economy where I can choose to pay 15c less for a certain brand of canned tomatoes and expect to be free to do so.

The issue at hand is a systemic failure by a number of parties, and their desire to dust this over and pretend it never happened.

Firstly, any business that knows what it is doing understands the concept of workforce planning. What are the skills we will need in the future, and how do we ensure we have access to them? Successful companies have engaged in training programs, partnerships with educational institutions, engagement with local community groups to ensure that they are able to access the workers they need in the future. This is basic business management. Without the people you need to do the work that needs to be done, you can not survive.

Advertisement

So I am confused as to how it is that the mining sector has a sudden unmet need for 1700 employees that can not be found in Australia. It is not like mining is a new and cutting edge enterprise. Nor is it true that we have not been told that mining is the economic base for this country. Surely if there were skills gaps in the future workforce, a competent business would have approached the government with a request for support years ago? Would they not have sought to ensure that the skills they need were being developed close to home, and by people with a vested and long term interest in the industry?

Apparently not. Apparently, as the saying goes, their lack of planning is our emergency.

Then there are the millions of dollars poured into employment agencies to assist the long term unemployed into work. What exactly have they been doing all this time? There is a mining boom, we have known this for years, and there are workers needed, and yet they can not find enough people to fit the bill? Does that mean they have nobody left on their books and are going out of business because we have reached 100% employment? Apparently not.

What exactly have they been doing?

Apart from the apparent incompetence of human resources departments within mining companies and employment service supposed to be finding peoples jobs, one has to wonder at the incompetence of successive governments.

The federal government pays the bill for unemployment, disability and sole parent benefits. One would think that they have an incentive to reduce their burden by assisting such people into work. Alright, so the jobs are in Western Australia and not Kensington, but a person who has been unemployed for long enough will not care so much about that if there is the prospect of a good job, an ongoing salary and the chance to build a career.

What exactly do we think brings foreign workers here to do these jobs? They are leaving home, they are stepping into the unknown, and they are walking away from family and friends, at least for some time, in order to build a better future. Do we actually think so little of our fellow Australians that we don't believe they would do this in order to build a future for themselves and their families?

What seems closer to the truth is a massive disconnect at a number of levels. Mining companies can not be bothered to invest in developing the skill level of the local workforce because it is easier to lobby the government to bring in qualified employees from overseas. While we have a generation of kids who can't find apprenticeships because businesses won't hire them, mining companies prefer to pick the cream off other the skills base of other countries.

Our kids will be welfare dependant as a result, but the companies don't care, they won't be paying the bill in financial, emotional or social terms.

Then there is the failure of government. Neither the LNP nor ALP has approached this with any business sense at all, and this is indicative of the state of politics in this country. Most of our politicians have done nothing else, although a few have been lawyers. How many have actually run a business?

It does not seem to have occurred to any of them, from any party, that there is work to be done here, and that our economic future depends not only on having successful businesses but successful people. If you leave significant proportions of the population out in the cold, consider them unemployable and then attack them for being a burden on society, bad things happen. If you accept that a certain group is never going to work and we will always have to support them with welfare payments, then you are mismanaging the countries finances. This applies to both sides of politics, neither of which has searched for, not achieved real solutions.

Then there are the unions. They jump up and down at times likes this, chanting the "protection of Australian jobs" as their concern. But the problem is that they represent people who have, or have had, jobs in the first place. They represent a particular skill set, or a particular industry. Who represents the terminally unemployed?

In theory, the employment agencies tasked with finding them employment. The sheer fact that we have to import labour on this scale suggests they have no idea what they are doing either.

Finally there is the voting public.

The debate about this issue seems to evolve around the union spin of job protection, the xenophobic fear of foreigners, and the liberal desire for business to be able to succeed at all costs.

And there is a cost. The cost to the economy of providing jobs to foreigners is not about xenophobia, it is about economics. The fewer people receiving welfare payments, the less the cost to the Commonwealth. The more people unable to work and subsisting on the lowest possible income in this country, the higher will be the costs in terms of welfare, health, education and justice.

It is not racist to want your neighbour's kid to get a job ahead of someone from another country when you are footing the bill if they don't. It is also not unreasonable to ask your neighbour's kid to seriously consider taking that job on the other side of the country rather than waste their life away waiting for their dream job here, provided they have the skills. Finally it is not unreasonable to expect that a Commonwealth government understands this, and puts in place programs that will assist the community in both reducing unemployment and filling job vacancies. The current system appears to deliver neither of these, and Gina Reinhardt is the only one with thick enough skin to take advantage of the fact we are disinterested in the future of our youth, and to seek to profit from it.

I suspect she can afford to wait a little while so we can come up with better solutions, and ask business to partner with us on this issue rather than simply pulling their profit and leaving individuals without a meaningful contribution to the community, or a means of providing for their families with pride and dignity. She can't wait forever, I understand that. But maybe in the interim she could hire a new human resources department who can explain that can explain to her the concept of workforce planning, and perhaps government can explain that she should start thinking about footing the bill for unemployment benefits if she continues to ignore the needs of the community. In that time I am sure we can train some locals to at least gain entry level positions on the mines.

The ALP is floundering because they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. An antiquated dream of protecting jobs is battling with the reality of wanting to be seen to grow the economy. But an economy that is grown on the back of cheap labour, disrespect for the local community, no investment in skills or opportunities for the long term unemployed and disabled and fly in fly out work conditions in townships without sufficient housing or infrastructure is an economy of short term taxes and long term disaster management. The LNP have been silent on this issue because they have no policy at all.

Warren Mundine seems to be the only person in this country who can see the long term causes and effects of this issue. As he said today "we've got the people in Australia to do the work, it saddens me that from the 1980s onwards we have, dropped off on training apprentices, we've dropped off on skilling up our work force to fill these jobs."

If we need to resource the industry that has been touted as the saviour of our economy with foreign workers, then it is time we all accept that we are the stupid country, and we should all start telling our children that their greatest hope is to look for a job as a nanny or guard in Dubai.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

23 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Naomi Anderson has worked in the human resources field for over fifteen years, and is the parent of a person with a disability. Passionate about creating positive change in areas of human rights and disability, she is the founder of www.disabilitydirectory.net.au.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Naomi Anderson

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 23 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy