457 visas

During the 2015-2016 financial year, more than 2600 health workers were brought into Australia via government-sponsored 457 visas on the basis they were needed for jobs that could not be filled by Australians. Of these 1692 were general practitioners and resident medical officers, 228 registered nurses, 35 specialists, 38 psychiatrists, 28 surgeons, 19 anesthetists and 20 midwives.

The high intake of health specialists occurred despite a senate inquiry in June 2015 where the Australian Nurses and Midwife Foundation (AN&MF) stated that there were 3000 unemployed graduate nurses, often with high HECS debts, while about 1 in 4 nursing positions were being filled by 457 skilled migrant intake[1]. They also claimed that many of the overseas nurses were victims of underpayment and exploitation because they live and work under threat of deportation[2]. The inquiry was also told that importing health workers was not solving the shortages of health professionals in rural areas because most imported workers went to the cities.

As of March 2016 there were 177,390 subclass 457 visa holders in Australia. To be eligible for a subclass 457 visa via standard business sponsorship, a worker must have an occupation on the Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List (CSOL) which is uncapped, meaning that there is no limit on how many can enter. Instead the numbers are determined from the applications made by employers. However there is a loophole that will allow employers to hire an unlimited number of foreign workers under a temporary working visa, in a move that unions say will bring widespread rorting of the system and insufficient support for local employment.

This reliance on skilled migration has been a long term policy of, not only our governments, but those of many developed nations, particularly the US, UK and Canada. As a consequence, about a quarter of doctors in Australia are from overseas and in 2010 the U.S. had 265,851 licensed physicians trained in other countries, constituting 32% of the physician workforce. Among these, 128,729 came from countries categorized by the World Bank as being from low- or lower-middle income. The World Health Organization (WHO) published a detailed 40-country study on the magnitude and flow of the health professionals. According to this report, close to 90% of all migrating physicians were moving to just five countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, UK and the USA. Even as far back as 1972, 6% of the worlds physicians were located outside their country of origin.

This poaching of skills or brain drain has been embraced by developed nations because it reduces the expense of training in the host nation. According to the African Capacity Building Foundation, African countries lose 20,000 skilled personnel to the developed world every year. All the developed world's efforts to increase aid to these countries may not matter if the local personnel required to implement development programs are absent. Every year there are 20,000 fewer people in Africa to deliver key public services, drive economic growth, and articulate calls for greater democracy and development. South Africa loses almost half of its doctors to Canada, Britain and Australia and is forced to recruit medical staff from countries like Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Ghana has lost half of its nurses and has more doctors working outside Ghana than in the country itself. This has cost it an estimated $63million of its training investment while the UK has saved $117m by the recruitment of Ghanaian doctors since 1988 alone. To address some of the concerns of “brain drain” from developing nations, the Commonwealth Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health Workers was adopted by Commonwealth Health Ministers in 2003. This serves as a framework within which international recruitment should take place and is intended to discourage the targeted recruitment of health workers from countries which are themselves experiencing shortages. The code also suggests that high-income countries consider how to recompense the donor nations for the recruitment of their health workers.

However there has been been considerable opposition to this approach, with some economists arguing that the transfer of skills is actually beneficial to both nations because many 3rd world nations are highly dependent on the remittances that their nationals return . According to the World Bank, workers from developing countries remitted a total of $325 billion in 2010, and in some countries these remittances are more than 20% of the nations GDP. Which of course is great unless you happen to urgently need the doctor that is now somewhere else. It has also been found that researchers and scientists who migrate are far more effective in their new locality because of better facilities that are available but then again this hardly flows on to benefit the donor nation. Shortages of skilled people in the education sector of developing nations is reducing training capacity and according to a report in the Wall Street Journal the US is to blame for Africa's doctor shortage that made the Ebola epidemic much worse than it should have been[3].

Today there are more doctors from Benin working in France than there are in Benin; more Ethiopian doctors in Washington DC than in the whole of Ethiopia. When you add in the effect of other professions that are poached from these countries under skilled immigration policies, teachers, engineers and others, it becomes plain that the developing nations will stay that way, a supplier of resources and skills to the developed world while ever this policy remains in place.

NOTES

[1] http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/call-for-migration-rort-crackdown-as-data-reveals-foreign-workers-snare-net-job-growth-20140807-3d9ma.html

1 in 3 nursing graduates can’t find work says ANMF report, yet 1 in 4 new nursing jobs going to 457 workers. http://t.co/FHHHQ2TCNH

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/lax-immigration-policy-hurting-australian-job-seekers-20140806-1019tr.html

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/29/revealed-the-systemic-exploitation-of-migrant-workers-in-australia?CMP=share_btn_link

[3] How the U.S. Made the Ebola Crisis Worse: http://on.wsj.com/2cMKN5B
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-27/corruption-and-widespread-rorting-undermining-immigration/7537270?pfmredir=sm

Kelvin Thomson's response to a question about how Multilateral Trade Agreements (such as the transpacific partnership agreements) might affect Australia's ability to control immigration numbers and to control the awarding of local jobs to local firms. He describes how this might be problematic and does not think we should sign any treaties containing an "Investor state dispute settlement clause." He explains why. He also discusses the process which sounds as if it has a distinct bias towards corporations and against citizens. What you can do: Contact your MP and ask them what they are doing and what they have done to stop any signing of treaties with these clauses. If they cannot show they have done anything to stop them, and do not undertake to do so, then let us know and we will publish this information and their photo. (Transcript and video inside.)

Transcript of Kelvin Thomson responds on Multilateral treaties

This question was asked after Kelvin's speech about Intergenerational Equity, where he mentioned multilateral trade treaties..
(Headings and emphases by Candobetter.net editor, for clarity.)

QUESTION: I noticed that you mentioned the multilateral trade agreements. I'm just wondering. I haven't had time to get into them myself and I'd really appreciate a speech in Parliament about their impact on our ability to control immigration and also to control the awarding of local jobs to local firms and things. And anything else you can think of. Can you speak on it off the cuff for a minute?

KELVIN THOMSON MP for WILLS: It is a very serious issue. In the past, the trade agreements were directed at tariffs and quotas - getting rid of tariffs and quotas - but they are pretty much gone. So if you enter into a trade agreement with another country now - with Korea or China or whoever - the issue is, what do they want? And the sorts of things that they want are freeing up of anything in the way of restriction between movement of people, freeing up of foreign ownership restrictions, and things of that nature. So, some of these agreements now have jumped into the area - I think - of diminishing our democratic capacity to determine our own future.

"Investor state dispute settlement clause"

And, in particular, there is a thing called the "Investor state dispute settlement clause", which is in a number of trade agreements. It's not in all of them. It is in the Korean one. It's not in the Japanese one. I assume it's in the China one, but they haven't released it yet - which is another matter of concern about these trade agreements. They get signed and we only get to see them some distance down the track.

But the Investor state dispute settlement clause allows corporations to sue governments if they believe that the decisions of governments impact adversely on their bottom line.

Health impacts

And the classic example of this is when the previous government introduced plain packaging on tobacco products that - and I think it's Phillip Morris - got themselves incorporated in Hong Kong expressly to take advantage of an investor state dispute settlement clause that we've had as part of a trade agreement with Hong Kong. And they are now suing Australia on the grounds that the plain packaging legislation disadvantages them. Now, that in itself is problematic from my point of view. I believe that governments need to be able to make democratic decisions - in this case in the health interests of the nation.

Environment impacts

It's equally problematic in relation to environmental issues. For example, there are foreign companies that wish to engage in coal-seam mining in New South Wales and Queensland and the like, and you have the prospect that if governments there knock them back, that they will be sued in relation to the Investor state dispute settlement clause.

Settlement of disputes lack normal legal standards

One feature of these clauses, which again is very unsatisfactory, is that it's not that you go to some international court which rules - you know, where you've got judges of the High Court, for example, sitting there. They are arbitration arrangements and the arbitrators come and go. They can be people who are acting for the company one day and sitting as an arbitrator the next, and then acting for a company on the day after that. So that the normal legal protection and rules concerning precedent and - you know - traditional independence and the like, are not present, in terms of these disputes.

We should not enter agreements with investor-state dispute settlement clauses in them

And my own view is that we should not enter into any trade agreements which have investor state dispute settlement clauses.

QUESTION: But do members of Parliament have any control over the signing of these things? Do they get to see the agreement?

KELVIN THOMSON: What happens, Sheila, is that the Executive has control over the treaty-making process and they enter into treaties. The treaties get layed on the floor of the Parliament and Parliament has a Treaties Committee which I chaired for quite a number of years and I'm now the Deputy Chair of - so I do have some experience with this. The Parliamentary committee takes evidence, takes submissions and so on. We can listen to people and make recommendations.

Abbot Liberal Government has majority on the Treaties Committee

There is a government majority on the Treaties Committee, as on Parliamentary Committees generally, and so you don't want to be sort of too carried away about the capacity of the Committee to do much once the treaty has been signed, but we make recommendations about whether the treaty should proceed to ratification and, from time to time Treaties Committee has made serious recommendations in relation to ratification and talked about provisions in particular treaties they regarded as unsatisfactory, but we don't have the capacity to look at treaties in the same way that United States members of the Congress do, for example. [Indistinct ?It's said that] they are able to scrutinise the text of treaties and know what is being negotiated. They're not supposed to tell people about it.

Double Standard: Corporations given privileged info; Civil Society kept in the dark

But this question about the negotiation of treaties and the process being followed is interesting because - so when the Treaties Committee talks to civil society, not government organisations and so on - they say, 'This is a highly secret process. No-one knows what's going on.' You know, the train goes into a tunnel and comes out the end of the tunnel and you've got this treaty. But when we talk to corporations, or agriculture groups and the like, they say, 'Oh, no, it's a good process. You know, they tell us what's going on and they keep us informed.' So, it's clear that there is a double standard at work. There are some people who are kept informed and know what's being discussed and negotiated, and a lot of people who don't.

by Federal Labor MP Kelvin Thomson – previously published (5 Feb 2015) on kelvinthomson.blogspot.com.au

It is troubling to hear reported today more allegations of fraud and rorting within Australia's migrant worker program, with the Immigration Department conducting a series of raids on a multinational firm working on major Australian mining and infrastructure projects. The raids targeted the offices of Murphy Pipe & Civil (MPC), with documents and other material seized. The firm has allegedly assisted dozens of Irish workers to fraudulently obtain 457 temporary skilled and other visas.

These allegations make even more worrying the Liberal Government's decision to relax requirements around 457 'temporary' work visas to make it much easier for Australian businesses to import foreign workers, as well as seeking to introduce a "short-term mobility visa", which would allow employers to hire specialised workers for up to 12 months.

In an economy where unemployment is a big problem, a situation that will get worse before it gets better as mining investment unwinds and the local car industry closes, it makes no sense to be relaxing foreign workers visas.

The Prime Minister talks about "growth and jobs", but the real intention of this government is to use the migration program to drive down wages and conditions, using the global labour market to smash trade unions.

ACTU President Ged Kearney and Secretary Dave Oliver are absolutely right to focus on the rorting of 457 visas – they constitute an existential threat to the trade union movement.

It is believed that up until two weeks post election 457 visa workers from Spain and their families were still arriving to work on East West Link. However the latest news is that the Authority behind the East West Link is being disbanded by the Andrews Government. There are, however, still many issues left over from the Napthine Government and East West Link that need to be carefully monitored in the area of environment, democracy and heritage.

East West Link News: The good news received yesterday is that Linking Melbourne Authority responsible for the East West Link is being disbanded by the Andrews Government."Authority behind the East West Link ditched" by Clay Lucas. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/authority-behind-east-west-link-ditched-20150107-12jg0e.html

This spells the demise of this monster project which would have been an environmental, social and economic disaster for the State. Many seem to be in a state of disbelief at the news. Few have been commending the Andrews Government for the action taken to wind up the East West Link. In our view its a bigger win than the Franklin Dam victory.

One activist has asked "Now just what are we all gonna do with ourselves this year? " There is plenty still to do re East West Link and other issues. And any win is temporary, any loss permanent as David Suzuki has commented, so eternal vigilance is the order of the day:

Priority Issues Re Winding Up the East West Link :

1 Royal Park Heritage The former Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, included the Royal Park on the State Heritage Register but spelt out exemptions to allow the East West Link to be routed through the Park, thus - in our view - negating its heritage standing! Our organisation and the Royal Park Protection Group Inc. sought legal advice and were advised that this matter could be referred to the Supreme Court but the cost precluded us from proceeding. We hope to raise this issue with the Acting Planning Minister. We have raised it already with the Director of Heritage Victoria.

2 Status of New Sports Facilities in Royal and Princes Parks. As you might be aware the City of Melbourne received funding of up to $14 million to fast track development of sports facilities in Royal Park and Princes Park to compensate for the forecast loss of sporting facilities on the Ross Straw Field in Royal Park with the construction of the East West Link. We have been extremely alarmed over the loss of open parkland for passive recreation and informal sports and the addition of light towers to the Flemington Road sports ground next to the Royal Children's Hospital and in Princes Park. As far as we know, a memorandum of understanding between Linking Melbourne Authority and the City of Melbourne was signed but given LMA is being wound up and that the East West Link will not proceed, is this agreement still valid? We are fighting the installation of sports lighting. The light spill and the towers themselves would have a detrimental impact on the environment, on cultural landscapes, on heritage and residential amenity.

3 Zoo's Territorial Ambitions to expand its Parking in Royal Park. As you may be aware the Zoo had negotiated secretly with Linking Melbourne Authority to alienate a great slab of Royal Park after construction of the East West Link was completed for its parking. We propose to pursue this question with Zoo management to promote public transport and alternative forms of transport to the Zoo. This has already been raised with the Zoo Director.

4 Immigration of 457 Workers to Work on East West Link. Rumour abounds that as late as two weeks after the election workers from Spain and their families were still arriving under 457 visas to work for the East West Connect consortium on the East West Link. If any one has information on this subject can you let me know? Meantime see photo taken in Royal Park by Age photographer Paul Jeffers of the East West Link opponents grouped on the very spot that the tunnel was to emerge into Royal Park Park on the Ross Straw Field. Work was to start on this spot in January until the Andrews Government called a halt to the project. (See photo in Clay Lucas' article)

5 Supreme Court Cases re East West Link. Don't think we have forgotten the stand that Councils plus Tony Murphy took over the East West Link. We have yet to hear when the cases of Yarra and Moreland Council and Moonee Valley Council will be heard. It would be great to get a comment on the final decision on the Tony Murphy case in the Supreme Court.

Source: Julianne Bell, Protectors of Public Lands Victoria

John Joseph Madigan, Independent Senator for Victoria: "Job seekers are in a tough job market. One only has to do check the Ballarat Courier or the Latrobe Valley Express from Saturday to see how many jobs are being advertised. When the government allows the employment market to be flooded with 457s, what do we expect? When the government goads industry upon industry to leave our shores, what do we expect? When the government cannot figure out how to manage its defence procurement needs over a long period, what do we expect? When the government cannot figure out how to use our abundance of natural gas for our own cheap electricity, what do we expect?" Full short speech inside, made October 1st, 2014 in Federal Parliament. Headings were added by candobetter.net editor.

Senator MADIGAN
(Victoria) (11:27): I rise today to speak on the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No.1) Bill 2014. I have been critical of this government's budget. It is quite possibly one of the most divisive and unfair budgets we have ever seen in modern Australia. And I am not alone in this view. I have received hundreds—no, thousands—of emails and letters and phone calls from angry, disaffected Australians. They have told me this budget is unfair, unreasonable and ideologically driven. I and many others accept the government has budgetary challenges. But why should those with the least have to pay the most? Why should thousands of good hardworking Australians—those with families, those with mortgages, those who each day step up and step out to do the right thing—pay the most? Why should those who are struggling, those looking for work, those impacted by disability, those who care for others, those who are sick, those on the pension pay the most? Why should those Australians on low incomes be targeted by this ideological—some would say pathological—numbers driven budget? Why should those with the least pay the most?

Over the past six months I have received a clear message from people across Victoria and across Australia. This is a bad budget. People have told me they are angry and distressed about the changes to the Newstart waiting period. They are angry and distressed about changes to family tax benefit part A and part B. They are angry and distressed about changes to pensions. They are angry and distressed about the increase in the pension age to 70.

Unreasonableness of raising retirement to 70 yrs especially for demanding physical occupations

I have often spoken about a constituent I know called Phil. Phil works in a forge and is supporting five children. He lives outside of Melbourne. Phil earns $43,000 a year, with another $8,000 on overtime. Phil's is backbreaking work. Phil is a big and strong man, with the strength and resilience of a draft horse, but he has often said to me, 'John, I'll never last until I'm 70.' Treasurer Joe Hockey expects Phil to keep doing what he is doing for another 24 years. I say to Mr Hockey: 'Mate, you're dreaming.'

As usual, I will be brief in my remarks today. I will let my voting do the talking. But, as this legislation affects families and job seekers, I cannot help but share my view. Families are the building blocks of strong societies. A strong family makes a strong individual. Strong people are the backbone of a strong country. The relationship between government and families should be one of mutual respect. Governments should support families.

Forcing both parents into workforce when children young

Forcing both parents to be in the workforce when the youngest child turns six is not the kind of help families need. It is not the kind of thing our nation needs either, because the nation and the family are interdependent. Families are doing it tough. Most parents, particularly those in the paid workforce, recognise the importance of spending time with their children. But, for hundreds of thousands of Australian parents, the financial concerns they face overshadow their ability to do this. This is something our tax system, and my amendments, can address.

House prices add to family burden - need to look at negative gearing and other factors

House prices add to a family's financial burdens. Single- and even dual-income family first home buyers are forced to compete with baby boomer investors as well as foreign nationals to buy their home. Today in Australia, families are often second-class citizens in the housing market. Why don't we look at negative gearing, amongst other things?

Growing job insecurity prevents families from taking care of themselves

When we look at the economy and job security, we must further consider how Australians can focus their energy on their families. But we in this place are not discussing legislation which will make it easier for these families. Instead we are discussing how we can take more of their taxes away from them by doing away with benefits which were originally given to them in recognition of the important role they play. Take, for example, the removal of the current end-of-financial-year supplement, the freezing of the indexation of the family tax benefit allowance or the removal of the child add-on supplement. This legislation is not about supporting families. It is about making life harder for them.

I have circulated amendments which address these issues in a reasonable fashion. Most Australians are happy to do their bit, I believe. Most Australians are happy to take part in some of the heavy lifting our nation needs right now. But no Australian should be expected to break their back in the process.

Newstart inequities and 457 visas, rising cost to business of electricity

I would now like to address the issue surrounding the government's proposed changes to Newstart. Job seekers are in a tough job market. One only has to do check the Ballarat Courier or the Latrobe Valley Express from Saturday to see how many jobs are being advertised. When the government allows the employment market to be flooded with 457s, what do we expect? When the government goads industry upon industry to leave our shores, what do we expect? When the government cannot figure out how to manage its defence procurement needs over a long period, what do we expect? When the government cannot figure out how to use our abundance of natural gas for our own cheap electricity, what do we expect?

For these and many other reasons, Australians' expectations of government are at an all-time low. Why should it be job seekers, people who are prepared to work, people who want to work, people who are trained, equipped and able to work, who are punished because of successive governments' poor decisions which have led or contributed to their redundancies?

If people opt to work for the dole then they should be entitled to their full allowance during the six-month waiting period. If people have spent years studying as a student then that period should be recognised as work to be deducted from the exclusion period. If people would prefer to spend the exclusion period not working for the dole but rather concentrating full time on finding a job then they should still be able to receive 40 per cent of the Newstart rate.

We must create hope. We must create opportunity. We must increase the cake, not diminish it. The future of our country and the welfare of our people depend on it. We often hear about business and individuals being told to innovate. It is about time the government innovated.

This is a huge scandal with far reaching serious National consequences and implications. The following represents my personal view on the 457 visa scandal and its ramifications. The recently exposed corruption is the last bit in the jig saw puzzle of my understanding. I cannot "prove" much of what follows, it is supposition not fact, but I believe that I am fairly close to the overall truth.

See also: Napthine complains that population growth outstrips job growth.

What I think is this This scandal, has huge far reaching serious National consequences and implications. With perhaps more serious consequences that anything we have previously seen in the history of the Nation.

1. The nub of the matter: There has been serious corruption involving Department of Immigration and Border Protection(DIBC) employees. (Fact)

Question 1. Why were the allegedly corrupt perpetrators allowed to return to India (with the loot)?
Question 2. Why has there been no obvious DIBC or Government response to internal reports of serious mismanagement going back to 2008?

Further background details here http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/visa-fraud-suspects-fled-after-wiring-1m-overseas-20140807-3dbmu.html and below http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/journalists-uncover-rampant-visa-fraud/5657050

This corruption does not come as a total surprise to me (or to DIBC). Corrupt procedures in the immigration industry have become almost standard procedure within the industry, and an essential and an accepted component of attaining the immigration numbers required. This is compounded by the impossibility of enforcing any compliance measures. In short, there has been tacit acceptance of corruption to further immigration goals. This is the problem.

I am suggesting that DIBC and this Government wish to close down publicity and Public discussion of this issue. (The previous Labour Government was equally culpable, and therefore they can be expected to support any cover up measures). Both major Parties have had involvement in misusing and abusing the immigration system for their own narrow advantage, mainly political, and over many years (decades), in ways which they would prefer the Public not to know about. (a more serious version of the recent Labour Government approach to HSU fraud and corruption issues).
This misuse may be of the types exemplified by the Slipper/Comcar/winetour or the Labour mates/Obeid/NSW Coal mine licences, (which though serious are fairly inconsequential in the long term, however they do set the tone) . Or they may be more serious, such as those they would be individually be held to account for, if matters became public, say through a Public or Judicial inquiry. Governments will avoid this at all costs (as with the HSU and Liberal party cash donation issues).

Put simply, I believe that there has been widespread political misuse and abuse of the immigration system mainly for political ends; but possibly also for other corrupt reasons, including financial corruption.

A test of Government intentions and its integrity will be whether there is a purposful response to obvious corruption within the Public Service. Similarly, whether the current 457 visa integrity Review (http://www.immi.gov.au/pub-res/Pages/reviews-and-inquiries/skilled-visa-programme.aspx) will address the corruption issue, and Government's possible response to this.

2. How did the current situation arise?

I suggest this started in about the mid to late nineteen eighties , when population boosting by immigration was introduced by PM Hawke (in 1985, after about 2 years in office) to boost immediate economic growth, (1989 had the highest immigration number since the World War). It is possible that Hawke was unaware of the longer term implications of his actions, but I doubt that his advisors (Treasury and the Public Service) were unaware. Perhaps, he was advised to ignore the long term consequences. Similarly the case with PM Fraser and the Vietnamese Boat people issue of the 1970's. Perhaps his only thoughts were "humanitarian".

Perhaps our Leaders were like that.

But once embarked on this National growth trajectory it became self perpetuating. (see also references below.)
This informal policy was picked up and enlarged by PM Howard (assisted by the resources boom) and later by PM Rudd (Big Australia) Governments.

It was a magic pudding policy, wherby benefits could be obtained ( and prizes bestowed) at no immediate, or only minor short term, cost. The perfect political formula. Since the major fiancial and social costs would be delayed for many years eg infrastructure and health/age care. Thus all the major costs were medium to long term and would be carried by others in the future (pass the parcel), and could safely be ignored in the short term.

The "magic pudding" approach was only achieved because of a refusal to conduct essential economic analysis and risk asessment. There was no critical examination of the justifications. Successive Governments, Ministries and Departments and the Media (including our fearless ABC) have done everything possible to avoid essential analysis; in fact they have impeded and disrupted analysis, partly through using selective inquiries, with predetermined conslusions and favourable terms of reference.

This approach has been very successful, aided by energy surpluses and low energy costs at the time, (boosting productivity), and apparently cost free in the very short term.

This process was supported and promoted by the overwhelming power, dominance and influence of the combined business/media (a Business/Government/Murdoch/ ABC/media combination) gives pro growth policies an unstoppable and huge advantage. Most of these parties obviously or indirectly stood to gain from this growth.

Unfortunately this developed into a ponzi immigration scheme, simply because once started the scheme had to be maintained at levels sufficient to maintain its limited benefits and avoid its disadvantages.

In the process, and as an adjunct to this, Governments have allowed, perhaps encouraged, DIBC to become an immigration factory, and not an impartial Public Service Department to safeguard the Public interest. In fact quite the opposite. This process has incidentally created the perfect conditions for official corruption.

An early example of political abuse of the system might be the actions of Liberal Politician Philip Ruddock who as a backbencher, and later as a Minister, managed to persuade immigration Authorities to boost Lebanese migration into his electorate. Possibly his main intention was for a political advantage ( 'buying' loyalty) in a marginal electorate, but allegations of financial corruption also were raised later in respect of "payments" for visas.

About 9 million people (60% increase) have been added to the population since 1980 (14.6 Million)much of this by immigration.

Thus about half the national wealth (eg Resources and existing infrastructure) has been given away in that time to overseas persons, with a further 50 % to be given away in the next 20 years or so. Incredible. So that in a period of about 50 years about 75% of the original total of National wealth (eg. resources and infrastructure) will have been distributed to overseas citizens. And for what?

Many of these new persons are now approaching retirement or old age with major cost implications for health, welfare and aged care services. This financial burden will become increasingly unaffordable in its present form. ( The Treasurer and PM are aware of this, hence the budget panic).

The Australian Public are not blameless in this, but most have been indoctrinated into new thinking; many have apparently done well from the situation, unfortunately most believe that it can go on forever and that they can hold onto their gains forever. Sadly not.

Many put too much store in the honesty of Government, and the Public Service and our Media.

Unfortunately the media, including the ABC (the last bastion), was so busy dancing to the Government tune that they forgot why they existed.

3. What are the consequences?

Well, firstly all the local benefits were for short term gains (mainly political) or to the overseas migrant beneficiaries of these actions.

However, the national consequences are long term. All Australians will be affected, not just for 10's of years, but for 100's of years and possibly for millenias ahead, by, for example, huge public expenditures as yet unacknowledged, a broken economy and intergenerational poverty and misery.

Poulation growth now appears to be uncontrollable, for political and economic reasons. Regarding the political reasons, too much power has been conceded to interest groups and marginal electorate minorities). Governments might like to do something, but the Public and interest groups, will not allow it, ( eg the current situation where even modest budget changes are impossible).

To change the current rate of population growth and immigration levels to the levels required in the shortest possible time frame, would seriously affect the whole economy and the immediate loss of some industries (eg Overseas Education, which would collapse overnight without a favourable PR Based visa system , Shopping Centres and Retail shopping, and City Unit Development). I cannot think of a single Industry that will not be impacted. I cannot see any Government choosing, or being allowed, to do this.

So they, and we, are doomed if they do, and doomed if they don't.

The best we can hope for is modest amelioration; any actions are 20 to 30 years too late for even modestly positive outcomes. The die is cast, irrevocably.

On any sensible assessment, Australia will find its current population overload impossible to manage into the future, in every way imaginable. (eg principally Food, Climate and Energy security; employment, education, health, welfare being secondary problems). Risk Factors such as cultural diversity and security will also be relatively minor issues in the overall problem, but will become totally unaffordable and unmanageable in any conventional sense.

References

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/populationpuzzle/immigration.html and book: Critical years in immigration

The Hon Richard Marles, MP

The Hon Richard Marles, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, was a guest speaker at the Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria, on 2nd July, 2014.

The Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) is an independent, non-profit organisation seeking to promote interest in and understanding of international affairs in Australia.

(124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3002)

As advertised for the event: “Associated with potentially contentious debates around population size and labour market flexibility, international migration is an undeniable feature of Australian society and future economic development. As such it warrants careful consideration from economic, social and political perspectives”.

Background

Marles comes from competent and illustrious parents. He was born in Geelong, Victoria. He is the son of Donald Marles, a former headmaster of Trinity Grammar School, and Faye Marles, Victoria's first Equal Opportunity Commissioner and later Chancellor of the University of Melbourne.

He was also the General Secretary of the National Union of Students in 1989

He graduated from Melbourne University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Laws with Honours. He started his career as a solicitor with Melbourne industrial law firm Slater and Gordon.

He was Federal Legal Officer, Transport Workers' Union of Australia (TWU) 1994-98; Federal Assistant Secretary 1998-2000.
Assistant Secretary, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) 2000-07.

Marles was elected member for Corio on 24 November 2007 in the election that returned the Labor party to office under the leadership of Kevin Rudd.

He is now the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

Richard Marles MP spoke on "International Migration and Australia's Future."

This is a synopsis of some of what he said:

Without immigration, our population would cease to grow and then decline.

Marles concedes that the 457 visa program must come with protection, and local workers must come first.

A sustained and fair migration program means we all benefit. Investors want security. There is a visa for the wealthy, with $5 million, to invest in bonds, funds or Australian companies.
We need immigration to compete with international investors, and it has a strong role in our economy.

Australia also needs to promote cultural and social development in our region and the world. Working Holiday Visa is a key for Australia's youth. The reciprocal nature of it allows Australians to travel overseas.

Hospitality needs this flexible workforce, and cultural ties in our neighbourhood. It provides for Gap Years. More than 185,000 came to Australia on WHV and boosted our economy. Hospitality staff still need seasonal workers with temporary workforce, and it encourages the exchange of cultures.

Tongans worked in Cosco tomatoes. It's not just for business but has global impacts. Tongans got benefits for their communities.. Household poverty levels have increased. Migrants are the key to trade innovation and brings skills and perspectives. It should be a job creating activity, filling in the employment gaps.
There is an enquiry at the moment on 457 visas. They should not become industrial tools.
Attention is not the same as when we were in government. We will be watching it very closely.

There is care and horticultural sectors, such as child care, aged care and other areas in which temporary migration can work. These areas are where there are gaps, and employers embrace it. There needs to be agencies to drive it. There must be genuine labour shortages.

Some responses to questions from the audience, and predictably most of the discussion was about asylum seekers. While it's a contentious issue of human rights, and a global problem, asylum seekers granted visas account for only 1.2% of our population growth last year out of 59% due to migration )

-Asylum seekers:
Pre 2001, pre Tampa, we enjoyed a bipartisan situation with regard to migration. We were as a country able to deal with the problem of 7 million people seeking permanent migration to Australia. We must say NO to millions of people. Even if all the political parties were on the same page, it can become impossible to navigate.

We need a more bipartisan approach and take the politics out of it. We really need to return to first principle on the values that drive us, such as compassion, fairness, and generosity.

-We must ensure that multicultural aspects of migration can be extended and migration can be as seamless as possible.

-racism
-Process of globalisation has potential to reduce racism. We are more exposed to each other. Racism is not modern. Multicultural has been embraced well. Pauline Hanson distorted the political debate. We have to embrace it as what we have is as good as it gets.
Now, we have old throwbacks to the past, with knighthood and dames. Odd!
There was an attempt to change 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and the protection from the worst elements of racism. A campaign raged. Restoring of a sense of Australia as n outpost of the British empire is not the way. Our economic future is in S E Asia.

-Malaysia solution.
In 2009 there was a growth in the umber of people globally, and the number of people wanting to come to Australia. It was better not to close Nauru. More than 1000 people have lost their lives coming to Australia.
Significant proposal was in 2011. Turnarounds have now been reduced the numbers of asylum seekers. There cannot be more than 300 or 400 that have been turned around. We need to resolve this issue as a country.
As a country we must take some responsibility for loss of lives. Dismantling Nauru wasn't helpful.

-Why can't Australia tap into the skills of asylum seekers and contribute to the economy? Labor has never used the word “illegal”. It is not illegal to seek asylum. We opposed temporary protection visas. It puts people's lives in limbo. Labor disallowed it.
A High Court Decision meant that we can't close shop. The program needs to be implemented. People will then be able to be given work rights.

We need to deal with Manus to end suicides. We need a regional arrangement regarding displaced people. PNG arrangement is significant in reducing drownings at sea. Asylum seekers shouldn't be in hell holes. They need to provide humane, dignified and safe accommodation.

Lack of empathy and communication with Grass Roots

Marle's privileged upbringing and background has isolated and immuned him from struggles and contemporary issues that directly surround him. He exists in his broad landscape, imbued by the vocabulary of academia and political frameworks. He paints a broad picture, on a big canvas, with a wide brush. No details, or real world imperfections, are allowed to be focused on. His world is a global oyster. with rich pickings. He sees a world without limits, and pearls of endless resources for economic growth. There's nothing tainted by climate change, increasing scarcities, overpopulation and energy costs. His ideas have been incubated and absorbed from academic theories, political spin, economic and political ideals - and any contrary real-world limitation have been filtered out from his vision of cornucopia. There can be endless growth, and the benefits of the globe will come to Australia without any hindrances! Marle's policies are Kevin Rudd's “big Australia” but more subtle!

Previous statements by Richard Marles

In response to the government's hard-line approach to asylum seekers, Mr Marles put forward an alternative motion in the meeting, that “asylum seekers should be afforded safe, dignified and humane conditions while awaiting refugee status determinations”.

SMH: Labor MPs fail to reverse party's asylum processing stance

By 2030, it's expected that the majority of the world's middle class will live in our time zone in East Asia, in China, in India, in the ASEAN countries. And providing goods and services to them will be an enormous economic opportunity for this country, given that we are providing those sorts of goods and services to our own population.

The density of people, economic activities in the coastal areas, rich biodiversity, and natural resource based economies make ASEAN cities especially vulnerable to climate change.

NAB chief economist Alan Oster says
Australia's agriculture is too small to be a global powerhouse like the resources sector, therefore replacing the mining boom.

Nobody would question the benefits of immigration to Australia development and economic growth. Due to our unique history, immigration has brought skills, infrastructure, economies of scale and contributed to a great nation.

Anyone who's studied science or the natural world knows that there are limits, thresholds and constraints to any growth. More of the same does not guarantee more of the benefits, without fallouts. While immigration has been beneficial and welcome, now our cities, economy, jobs market, infrastructure demands and natural systems are straining under our population overload. Bigger is not necessarily better! Nothing can be filled forever without experiencing internal pressure, or the fallouts from spill-overs. The benefits we had in the past from high immigration are now forcing job losses, unaffordable housing, the extinction of iconic wildlife species, overloaded infrastructure, higher costs of living and lower living standards.

The 2006 Productivity Report, the one being ignored, concluded that ongoing immigration to Australia would benefit the immigrants, and capital owners – and little for the general public! he research of the Productivity Commission confirms the findings of many previous studies -- that the overall economic impact of migration is very small, but probably positive. And that the benefits mainly accrue to the migrants themselves.

Actually, per capita wealth growth has largely stagnated in Australia! There is a much greater gap between the well-off, and a growing poverty problem in our country.

Richard Marles, the opposition immigration spokesman in an interview with The Australian noted, “The ageing population is going to see the size of the labour force plateau and within decades that will start to shrink.”

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OPPOSITION immigration spokesman Richard Marles says "the ageing population is going to see the size of the labour force plateau and within decades that will start to shrink" ("Welcome bubs, you'll live till 2101 in a very Big Australia", 27/11).
Does he imagine that by projecting our population to double its size by 2075 will stop the population from growing old? There won't be any reduction in ageing. In fact, there will be an even bigger ageing population by then.

If we need skills, our human resources should be used. Why is it imagined that skilled migrants from Asia would be better than our own?
We have seen university budgets slashed, TAFE funding cut, apprenticeship disappearing, along with manufacturing and jobs.
An economy based on perpetual population growth is unsustainable. If our budgets can't provide for pensions and care for the next generation, how will people be provided for in the future when their numbers will be even greater?

Vivienne Ortega, Heidelberg Heights, Vic
The Australian: letters/population mirage

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There were no counter arguments, points of view, or debate at this event. It assumes that, while our economic development was promoted by migration, our “future economic development” must follow suit – in strange kind of extrapolation of the past used for future policy making. It's a cornucopia attitude that if growth is good, more of it is even better. No constraints, no contemporary influences, no limitations, no realities on the real world to hamper this cornucopia vision of endless benefits from immigration and growth! It's one foot in the past without any new strategy or focus on present day implications.

Candobetter.net Editor: All headings have been supplied by Candobetter.net and were not present on the original source, which is a speech in Hansard. For the original source go to Hansard, Wednesday, 4 June 2014, House of Representatives, p.15

Mr KELVIN THOMSON (Wills) (10:24): In my 2014 budget reply speech I said I was going to devote more time to health policy issues and become more expert in these matters. In delivering on that, yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at some length about preventive health and today I want to make some observations about our health workforce. The Health Workforce Australia Abolition Bill seeks to repeal the Health Workforce Australia Bill 2009 and absorb Health Workforce Australia's functions and programs into the Department of Health.

Australia’s complex health workforce arrangements

In 2006 the Productivity Commission report Australia's Health Workforce concluded that a more sustainable and responsive health workforce was needed. The report also highlighted the complexity of Australia's health workforce arrangements and the involvement of numerous bodies at all levels in health workforce education and training. In 2008 COAG agreed to the creation of a national health workforce agency that works across jurisdictions to establish more effective, streamlined and integrated clinical training arrangements and to support workforce reform initiatives. The Health Workforce Australia Bill back in 2009 established a national health workforce agency, Health Workforce Australia. Since its establishment Health Workforce Australia produced Australia's first ever national long-term projections for doctors, nurses and midwives with the publication in 2012 of Health Workforce 2025—Doctors, Nurses and Midwives. This report highlighted that under current policy settings Australia will face a significant shortage of nurses and a shortage of doctors by 2025.

Imported nursing numbers equal to number unemployed Oz nurse grads

Australia has become highly dependent on migration of international health professionals, particularly in rural and remote communities, as a consequence of a lack of sufficient attention to training young Australians to take up health workforce roles. In the 2013-14 budget the previous Labor government invested more than $344 million in Health Workforce Australia to support Australia's healthcare system and its workforce, especially in rural and remote areas. Health Workforce Australia has delivered an additional 446 nurses and allied health professionals to rural and remote communities. It is very surprising to me and quite unacceptable that Australia is one of the least self-sufficient nations amongst comparable OECD countries in terms of meeting our health workforce needs through domestic training efforts. It is even more remarkable that, despite this, what we are seeing today is skilled nurses finding it difficult to find work.

The proportion of international nurses who we bring into Australia each year on 457 visas is comparable to the proportion of nurse graduates who find themselves unable to find work. Seriously, how are Australian nurses meant to transition from graduate into experienced nurses if the opportunities to work, experience and refine their skills are not available to them? It is wrong and foolish and short-sighted that Australian nurses are not given employment priority.

Instead, hospitals and managers are getting bonuses for bringing in foreign nurses and getting them to sign up with universities to do masters and PhDs in nursing at great expense to the migrants themselves and at great cost to the wider Australian society. While this is going on, many excellent local nurses with years of experience are now unable to find work.
In a submission to the 457 Visa Integrity Review

the Australian Nurses and Midwifery Federation pointed out 'the sorry state of the employment prospects for new nurse graduates, with an increasing number struggling to find work, with many rejected for work by employers that use international recruited nurses under the 457 program'.

They urged the panel to resist calls for any deregulation that will remove or dilute current protections or safeguards, particularly to labour market testing, English language requirements and current obligations regarding wages and employment conditions. I believe the nurses federation is quite right to urge the government not to water down the 457 visa program. The underemployment of nursing graduates, despite the employment of large numbers of offshore nurses, is inconsistent with the key policy objective of the temporary migrant worker programs. There is a clear policy disconnect here that needs to be addressed.

Many Australian nurses unable to find work

The nurses federation estimates that, in 2013, 60 per cent of Tasmanian nursing graduates were unable to find work; in Queensland only around 28 per cent of new nursing graduates secured positions with Queensland Health; in 2014, only 600 of 2½ thousand graduates were employed; and, in 2013, 800 graduates in Victoria, 400 in Western Australia and 280 in South Australia could not secure positions. An online questionnaire of new graduates undertaken by the nurses federation revealed further troubling anecdotal evidence of large numbers of new graduates failing to find employment in their field; many graduates receiving numerous employment rejections —and in one case over 70; most graduates fortunate enough to obtain employment being engaged on a precarious basis through agency, part-time or casual arrangements; many graduates going to great lengths to obtain work—for example, by moving interstate and separating themselves from their families; most employers who were named in the questionnaire as rejecting new graduates using 457 labour; and, finally, and I think most seriously, most new graduates are saddled with a HECS debt and many are disillusioned that they studied at all.

No jobs but big student debts

Indeed, if this government gets its way in deregulating student fees and increasing the interest on student debts, young student nurses will be at risk of being in the demoralising position of having no jobs and going deeper and deeper into debt. I agree 100 per cent with the nurses federation that the current labour market testing requirements need to be strengthened to include employer obligations such as the need to advertise locally and nationally at market rates; offering relocation, housing and utility assistance where required; reporting on specific measures taken to employ disadvantaged groups, local job seekers and recently retrenched workers; and, where possible, making sure that new graduates have a reasonable chance of filling vacancies.

Graduate nurses are our future and we all need a secure future

Graduate nurses are our future. Initiatives need to be in place to ensure that they are placed in employment upon completion of their degrees, otherwise the future of Australian nursing will be one of shortages of nurses and dependence on overseas recruiting. Given the proposed changes to the federal budget, it is a bleak outlook for thousands of nursing graduates each year who are desperate to be employed but are often losing out on job opportunities to nurses recruited by hospitals and other facilities on 457 visas. The nurses federation is right when saying in their submission that, putting aside the demoralising and devastating effect that this has on new graduates who are unable to find work after undertaking a three-year tertiary course, it also represents a loss in investment in the education of professional health workers and a loss in the contribution of these potential workers to the health-care systems—absolutely.

Grim situation calls for seriously questions re 457 visa program

In the light of these facts, one has to seriously question how well temporary migrant worker programs like the 457 visa program are serving this country. I think it would be crazy to further liberalise the program. The only reason for doing this would be to undermine the pay and conditions of local workers. Yet, this is what the government with its 457 visa review seems to want to do.

The situation is so grim that there is an online petition circulating calling for a review of the issuing of subclass 457 visas for nurses in Australia which has over 27,000 signatures. Anyone interested can find the petition on the website candobetter.net.

Online comments by supporters of this petition include: 'We must give priority to Australian nurses over 457 visa holders; our future depends on it' and 'Destroying the reasonable expectations of employment of nurses born here is cruel, unnecessary and shameful'.

457 Visa workforce growing much faster than Aust employment generally

The 457 visa program, in my view, needs tightening to ensure that Australian workers and young people are given priority over temporary visa workers. Immigration department figures released in May show that there were over 110,000 457 visa workers in Australia on 31 March this year, up by over 6,000 or 5.9 per cent compared to 12 months ago. The 457 visa workforce is growing much faster than Australian employment generally. This is completely unjustifiable in the present jobs climate. It is a recipe for increasing unemployment with all the misery and hardship that accompanies that.

It is all very well for ministers opposite to say that everyone has to earn or learn, but how are you supposed to earn even after you have learned when we have over a million people in Australia on temporary visas, which give them no work rights—a docile workforce who employers prefer because they can be sent packing from the country if they speak out about their rights at work?

The Liberal government is allowing too many employers to access 457 visas without any obligation to look for Australian workers first and young people especially are losing out. Under the coalition,

around two-thirds of all 457 visas are not subject to any employer obligation to advertise the job and test the local labour market, and nearly half of all 457 visas are still going to younger foreign workers aged 30 or less.

Prime Minister Abbott promised 'no cuts to health' but the abolition of Health Workforce Australia through this bill is another example of that promise being broken. Labor established Health Workforce Australia to provide a national, long-term, coordinated approach to health workforce planning and reform to ensure our health workforce can meet the increasing demand for health services now and into the future. Health Workforce Australia has had a proven track record in national health workforce planning, which is crucial if Australia is to have a health workforce able to meet the health needs of Australians wherever they live into the future.

Health Workforce Australia has funded 8,400 new quality clinical training places for students across 22 individual disciplines. It has supported a 115 per cent increase in simulated education hours in 2012 through the Simulated Learning Environments Program. The Health Workforce Australia report Health Workforce 2025 shows the current medical training system is inefficient and there is an uneven distribution of the medical workforce, which of course particularly affects rural and remote communities.

A key policy action from Health Workforce Australia's report was to improve the national coordination of medical training by working with trainees, employers, educators and governments through the National Medical Training Advisory Network. A Medical Observer article following the budget quoted medical experts who condemned the proposal to merge Health Workforce Australia into the health department. It said that, in the view of the President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Liz Marles:

… the move would risk destabilising general practice training …

And in the same article the CEO of the Public Health Association Australia, Michael Moore, was said to have labelled the plan short-sighted. Mr Moore argues that the merged organisations would have neither the same independence nor influence if they were combined with the health department. Professor Simon Willcock, who sat on the board, also pointed to the good work Health Workforce Australia have done in developing databases and around workforce projections, and he lamented:

It would be a shame to see all of that work not continue.

So, if this bill is passed, this complex but important planning work will not occur on a national level, and the burden will fall to the states and territories.

I regret that this government seems determined to dismantle universal health care and consign our country to a return to a piecemeal approach to health-workforce planning. I am concerned that this will result in a boom-and-bust cycle in the supply of doctors, nurses and midwives. This scenario is unsustainable and unaffordable, and it will result in a health workforce which will not be able to meet the increasing demands for health care, now and into the future.

The Abbott government’s reopening of a visa loophole in the temporary working visa (457) program is a retrograde step, according to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).

The Gillard government in 2013 had tightened the program to stop rorting by employers in the mining, construction and IT industries who knowingly hired hundreds more foreign workers than they had applied for.

SPA National President, Ms Jenny Goldie, says that with the recent decline of manufacturing in Australia and an increase in the unemployment rate to six percent in January of 2014 , it was critical that as many jobs as possible went to Australians.

“The Gillard government was right to tighten the 457 program in 2013,” says Ms Goldie. “Companies had taken advantage of it by bringing in too many workers, to the disadvantage of local workers.

“In July last year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that real unemployment is more than double the official figure. It should actually be 13.1 per cent when ‘discouraged’ jobseekers, the ‘underemployed’ and those who want to start work within a month, but cannot begin immediately, are taken into account.”

Ms Goldie says bringing in excessive numbers of workers, albeit temporary, only puts pressure on governments needing to supply infrastructure for an additional 400,000 people who are added to the population each year. Australia’s population growth rate of 1.8 per cent is three times the OECD average of 0.55 per cent.

“Temporary workers need housing and hospitals just as much as permanent residents,” she says. “Perhaps if employers had responsibility for providing these themselves they would be less inclined to favour foreign workers over Australian residents.”

Sustainable Population Australia, SPA Media Release, March 2014

The move is decidedly contrary to the interests of Australia’s population, which their government is supposed to represent. Australia now has 728,600 people unemployed according to January ABS figures, a rate of 6% up from 5.8% in December. These figures do not include the underemployed who, if they work more than one hour a week are not classified as unemployed. Unemployment and underemployment are rising, but numbers of persons in employment remain steady although Australia's population rises by about 1.8% in a year. This situation hardly justifies making it easier for employers to import excess labour.

The increased population growth due to immigration to Australia, of which skilled migration is the largest category, carries many costs. It places stress on and causes inflation of prices for accommodation, infrastructure and services, including scarce power and water resources. This inflation and stress affects the supply and affordability for the incumbent population as well as for immigrants.

Australian government pouring Australia down the drain

It seems that the Australian government is simply pouring Australia as an entity down the drain. The government seem to have completely lost sight of their responsibilities in this matter.

It is in fact the responsibility of governments to provide an interface or buffer between capital and labour, in the current economic paradigm.

The profit imperative of big business in a neo-liberal world means that business pays no attention to the issues mentioned, is out for itself, and hell-bent on clawing an advantage out of the mix of public resources available to it.
It is the government’s job to temper this and to protect the Australian people. Closures of car factories in Victoria – Ford (in 2016) and Holden and Toyota (in 2017) will be very hard on the workers who lose their jobs, on their families and on the communities where they spend their money. This seems to be the proverbial 'no brainer’ that Australians need to be catered for in Australia's job market. If Australians are unsuitable for jobs here, why would people imported over 1000s of Kilometers, sight unseen, be more suitable?

It is interesting that in water-starved West Australia, the population growth rate has recently varied between a whacking 3.7% and the current huge 3.3%, thanks to Enterprise Migration Agreements with mining operators such Gina Rinehart. Workers are imported to lay pipes for gas companies, to spray water to settle dust in iron ore operations and for other laboring functions. According to the rules, these 457 workers must find more work within 4 weeks of a job ending. If they work one hour a week that enables them to stay - but how do they support themselves?

They then must rely on any charity and goodwill around them like other unemployed people. This is hardly a contribution to Australia’s economy!

The same observer, who has spoken to young people from Europe in West Australia, reports that that Australia is very attractive to European youth, as, being a commodity economy, the impact from the Global Financial Crisis has been delayed. These young Europeans come to Australia as students, and after completing or during a short course, move into the workforce – as waiters or cooks, for instance. If they are lucky enough to get sponsorship, they can then stay. This is a happy ending for the young person but what about Australia’s youth?

The other section of the workforce to be concerned about is the over 45s, many of whom find it difficult to get another job after losing one, even if extremely well qualified.

MP Kelvin Thomson wrote in Dec 2013:

“We are now being told that the jobless rate will rise within about 18 months to 6.25% from the current 5.8%, and stay there through to the end of 2016-17!"

We seem to be well on the way with the government giving the situation a big helping hand.

We have recently had a number of articles about 457 visas and also about feared changes to the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act ( EPBC). Currently the Business Council of Australia is making a fuss about where the government is going with this and the mass media is supporting them and generally giving Ms Gillard unseemly treatment - so we may assume that there is a chance that the Gillard Government is up to some good.

The Financial Review on 14 June 2013 ran a front page article that the 'BCA slams last gasp legislation'.

"The Business Council of Australia is pleading with independents and the Senate to consider the national interest and reject the last minute frenzy of 'anti-business' legislation being rushed through the final days of Parliament."

[Noting that it was] " ...particularly concerned about planned changes to the system of 457 temporary visas for skilled workers and amendments to make it illegal for the federal government to effectively hand over its environmental approval powers to state governments."

So, what's going on?

Changes proposed to 457 visas:

· Employers must demonstrate that they are not nominating positions where a genuine shortage does not exist;

· The English language requirements for certain positions have been raised;

· The enforceability of existing training requirements for businesses that use the program will be strengthened;

· The market salary exemption will rise from $180,000 to $250,000;

· On-hire arrangements of 457 Visa workers will be banned;

· Compliance and enforcement powers will be beefed up to deal with employers who have abused the 457 system; and

· Stakeholders will be consulted to ensure market rate provisions more effectively protect local employment

The Liberal Opposition is opposing these measures.

Preventing States from taking over Federal Environmental powers

In relation to the environment, the Labor Government is wants to maintain the Commonwealth’s environmental standards under Commonwealth law and policy, retaining its overall responsibility for protecting matters of national environmental significance.

If States get control of the environment as well as over water and land, which they already have, then we can expect the same vandalism currently tearing Queensland apart under the Campbell Newman State Government.

Unbeknown to most of those commenting on the numbers of 457 visas outside the EMA (Enterprise Migration Agreement) issue, as part of Doha round of trade negotiations, the Labor Government processed and negotiated away Australia’s rights to apply labour-market testing to temporary overseas workers in the 457 visa program.
Some Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) also commit Australia to temporary entry without limits and without labour market testing, for certain categories as intra-corporate transferees (executives, managers and specialists, independent executives and “contractual service sellers”).

Immigration Overshoot: Bob Birrell, Ernest Healy Centre for Population and Urban Research, Feb 2012

The permanent migration program for 2012-13 has been set at the record high figure of 210,000. The Government’s 457 temporary-entry visa program is also running at record high levels. Opportunities for other
temporaries, including visitors, students and Working Holiday Makers (WHMs) most of whom have work rights in Australia, have also been opened up.

Employer-sponsored visa subclass are 457 visa holders already employed by the sponsor. These migrants do not have to possess professional-level
English proficiency or to undergo an assessment of their credentials by the relevant Australian occupational authority.

Unbeknown to most of those commenting on the numbers of 457 visas outside the EMA (Enterprise Migration Agreement) issue, as part of Doha round of trade negotiations, the Labor Government processed and negotiated away Australia’s rights to apply labour-market testing to temporary overseas workers in the 457 visa program.

Employer sponsorship is increasingly being used as a backdoor entry method, which allows some employers to get a competitive advantage and some migrants to evade the much tougher entry rules applied to points-tested migrants.

This is also why the temporary-entry 457 visa program continues to expand despite the recent slow-down in employment creation.

CFMEU Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union of Australia February 2010 Australia's international trade commitments and the 457 visas

The CFMEU and other unions have raised serious concerns about the inclusion of immigration matters in trade agreements at all, the specific terms of offers made in relation to temporary work visas in the Doha Round and FTAs, and the use of work visa concessions as bargaining chips in trade negotiations. Jobs in Australia should not be bargained so freely to our detriment!

This is a significant downgrading of the rights of Australian workers to jobs within Australia, ahead of foreign nationals, and is proceeding with little or no public debate. It is also a significant erosion of national sovereignty over immigration policy, which makes even less sense when Australian governments are giving higher priority to developing sustainable population policies.

CFMEU RESPONSE TO PRODUCTIVITY DRAFT RESEARCH REPORT ‘BILATERAL AND REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS JULY 2010’

Most Australians would be surprised to learn that the Rudd Labor Government asserts that on account of Australia’s “international trading position and legal obligations”, it is not able to require employers:

• to give preference to hiring Australians (citizens and permanent residents) over temporary foreign workers in the 457 visa program, through formal “labour market testing” or LMT.

• to give preference to retaining Australian workers over 457 visa workers in redundancy situations.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship set out this position in writing to the CFMEU, in a letter dated 10 September 2009. This said in part:
While the Government continues to promote and encourage the culture of employing Australian workers, we cannot create legal obstacles for overseas workers or introduce preferential treatment for Australian workers without compromising our international trading position and legal obligations.

In addition, the Rudd Labor Government asserted that Australia’s international trade commitments also limit its ability to change the 457 visa program in several other areas, so that:
• Australia is constrained in the extent to which it can change the gazetted list of occupations for which 457 visas may be granted.

• Australia cannot impose a cap or numerical limit on the number of 457 visa grants in a particular year, in total or in specific sectors or occupations.

The Rudd Labor Government asserted that on account of Australia’s “international trading position and legal obligations”, it is not able to require employers:

• to give preference to hiring Australians (citizens and permanent residents) over temporary foreign workers in the 457 visa program, through formal “labour market testing” or LMT.
• to give preference to retaining Australian workers over 457 visa workers in redundancy situations.

Australia cannot impose a cap or numerical limit on the number of 457 visa grants in a particular year, in total or in specific sectors or occupations.

The Rudd Government on Australia’s international trade commitments and the 457 visa was made on 10 September 2009 on 457 visas:
Any changes to the 457 visa must be consistent with Australia’s international trade commitments under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (WTO GATS) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs); and Australia “should also be cautious about measures that could limit our capacities in future negotiations”.

Australia has made certain commitments, under the WTO GATS, to allow the entry and temporary stay of some persons without labour market testing (executives, senior managers, independent executives and service sellers).

Some Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) also commit Australia to temporary entry without limits and without labour market testing, for certain categories as intra-corporate transferees (executives, managers and specialists, independent executives and “contractual service sellers”).

For example, the Thailand Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), which has special concessions for Thai chefs to treat nationals of other countries as Australian nationals, through provisions known as” National treatment” and “Market access”.

Australia made a non-binding offer in the Doha trade Round in 2005 under the Howard government, which is still current. This included the offer to remove LMT for specialists in all 457 situations, not just intra-company transfers, in all occupations on the gazetted list of occupations eligible for 457 visas, including ASCO 4 trades occupations.

Australia could change its 2005 Doha offer at any time – it could therefore withdraw the offer to remove LMT for “specialists” in the 457 program.

Ross Garnaut in his 1989 landmark report:
There will continue to be pressure from China and the Republic of Korea for Australia to accept temporary entry for labourers and skilled workers on, for example, joint venture developments.
Australia’s approach has been to welcome migrants on a non?discriminatory basis but to refuse entry to guest workers unless they possess an important skill that is not available in Australia. This approach has deep roots in Australian labour and immigration policy. In a country receiving migrants from diverse sources, it is important to the maintenance of national coherence and identity. It is defensible in principle and should be maintained.
( Ross Garnaut, Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy, 1989, pp293?4.)

Trade negotiations should be undertaken through open, democratic and transparent processes that allow effective Parliamentary and public consultation to take place about whether negotiations should proceed and the content of negotiations.

Trade agreements should not undermine human rights, labour rights and environmental protection, based on United Nations and International Labour Organisation instruments.

ACTU

Unions believe that all workers in Australia, no matter where they’re from, should have equal rights to decent pay and conditions and to be treated fairly at work.

According to the ACTU, while the inflow of temporary overseas workers increased rapidly under the former Howard Government as the economy grew, the GFC saw a  drop in numbers. However, this trend has since reversed and there  continues to be a steady movement of temporary overseas workers to Australia.  

The explosion in the number of 457 visas that started in the early 2000s, along with a shift in source countries and increased employer demand for workers with lower levels of skills,  placed enormous pressure on what was already a deeply flawed temporary migration scheme.

Workers on 457 visas have been underpaid, abused and subjected to sub-standard conditions of work. Most cases of abuse have tended to involve trades level 457 visa holders with little or no English language skills who often lacked the technical skills they are supposed to have to be eligible for a 457 visa.

It has also been used by the Australian Government during its negotiations with Pacific countries over a regional free trade agreement.

In December 2011, the Government announced that the pilot will become an ongoing seasonal worker  program commencing on 1 July 2012. Seasonal workers who are citizens of East Timor, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu will be able to participate with 10,450 places available for the horticultural industry.

The 457 program is an important part of how Australia meets a number of our international trade obligations. These obligations mean we can't limit access to our economy of people who wish to do business with us. Part of doing business with us often involves sourcing skilled labour from other countries. Australia must remain open for business people and service providers and the reforms to the 457 program will not adversely impact these obligations.

Immigration continue to release information about upcoming 457 visa changes, adding details to the Minister’s announcement late last week. They will come into effect the 1st of July.

It looks like labour market testing will not be re-introduced, as it may breach some of Australia’s international trade agreements.

Why is the government not reintroducing Labour Market Testing?

The 457 program is an important part of how Australia meets a number of our international trade obligations. These obligations mean we can't limit access to our economy of people who wish to do business with us. Part of doing business with us often involves sourcing skilled labour from other countries. Australia must remain open for business people and service providers and the reforms to the 457 program will not adversely impact these obligations.

"Labour market testing would constitute a restrictive practice in the context of [some of Australia's] international trade agreements."

Doing "business with Australia" means negotiating away the right to jobs produced by our economy. They can't be guaranteed for Australians.

Update from DIAC on 457 changes

Jon Faine surprised many Victorians yesterday morning (4 September 2012) when he lambasted the abuse of 457 Visas in Victoria at a time of high local unemployment. He drew listeners' attention robustly to the folly of importing thousands of workers to industries where Australians could not even afford to train. Today, 5 September 2012, on ABC Radio 774, his guest was the Executive Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), but we heard not a word about how mass immigration is driving Australia's housing shortage nor how the property development growth lobby is driving mass immigration and the destruction of Victoria's green wedges and other greens spaces. Should we expect more of Jon Faine and the ABC or are ABC announcers constrained to toe the government line that supports the property development lobby?

Jon Faine and the abuse of 457 Visas

Jon Faine surprised many Victorians yesterday morning (4 September 2012) when he lambasted the abuse of 457 Visas in Victoria at a time of high local unemployment. Careful to underline his support of multiculturalism or refugee rights or simply the right to migrate (I cannot remember which exactly) he drew listeners' attention robustly to the folly of importing thousands of workers to industries where Australians could not even afford to train. A number of people rang in - and nurses were well represented - to say how foreign workers were taking over industries and supplanting them.

The Housing connection missed entirely with 457 visas

No-one said anything, however, about how this was driving up the cost of housing and thereby driving up the cost of wages - because people have to pay rent and mortgages in this inflationary situation. It's not like Jon Faine doesn't know about it though. He seems to be in a position where, overall, he consistently promotes 'experts' who are highly influential in the property development and population growth lobbies.

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)

What a contrast today (5 September 2012) when John had as his guest Dr Ian Winter, the Executive Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).

AHURI flies under a touchy-feely banner of social welfare housing affordability independent research, so listeners may have been surprised by the relatively supine attitude it seems to hold towards Victorians' plummeting quality of life and narrowing choices. They might be less surprised if they realised that AHURI gets most of its funding from government and that some of its board members are highly placed in the property development industry inseparable from the population growth lobby. In contrast to the people who rang in yesterday deploring what was happening with the 457 visas, the callers today seemed suspiciously keen to celebrate our declining choices. Were they for real?

If AHURI is the best Australia can come up with to defend peoples' rights to housing, then it looks like we are sunk.

Not so touchy-feely really

The reality is that AHURI is in there with Australand, the Property Council of Australia, and various state land development corporations, which everyone should realise are just property development mills with inextricable links to private interests. While Dr Ian Winter has a benign history as a former Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the Chairman of AHURI's Board is Rod Fehring who is a Foundation Member & Chairman of the Residential Development Council and Director of the Property Council of Australia. He was a Chief Executive of socially and environmentally destructive Delfin Lend Lease and Head of Lend Lease Communities, Asia Pacific. As well as several similar past positions, he was appointed in 2010 as Executive General Manager – Residential of Australand Ltd. (a company more than half-owned by the Singapore Government through CapitaLand, part of the Singapore-government owned Temasek).

Some alert Victorians many remember that it was to Australand that Mr Bracks (ex-Premier of Victoria) gave away 80million dollars and 20 hectares of Melbourne's dearly loved Royal Park. In addition, the Federation-style Heritage-listed buildings of the old Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital, restored at taxpayers’ expense and promised for community use, were then included in the deal, divided into units, and then sold for up to $800,000 a unit - often off the plan - providing a portal to people not even resident in Australia. There was a minute 'social housing' component in the whole deal, but the amount of land and money and taxpayer funding given to Australand could have been put to much greater and more direct use by Australians in need of housing, and we could have retained 20 ha of parkland. If the land had not been given away to this foreign company, the standing Victorian government invitation to overseas immigrants via www.liveinvictoria.com.au could not have done as much damage.

Michael Kerry is the Executive Director of the AHURI Board of Management. He is also the Managing Director, Planning, Design and Development – Australia New Zealand for AECOM [which is an international engineering and construction corporation]. Previously he was Regional Director (Queensland) for Parsons Brinckerhoff [construction and engineering corporation], a senior executive with Babcock & Brown Australia [Investment and Infrastructure, went belly-up in 2009], a Director with the Springfield Land Corporation

"Greater Springfield is the largest privately owned master planned city in Australia. Springfield Land Corporation is the master developer of the entire 2,860 hectare (7,067 acre) Greater Springfield land parcel which has become home to nearly 23,000 residents and 8,700 students since it was established in 1991."

.
(Isn't that where Bart Simpson lives?)
Michael also had extensive involvement in planning urban development in Queensland from 2004 [pity about those buildings on the flood plains]. From 1992-2004 he was Divisional Manager, Urban Management, with the Brisbane City Council, a Director of the South Bank Corporation for 12 years and an inaugural Director of Brisbane City Enterprises Pty Ltd. Before joining Brisbane City Council in 1992, he was Executive Director of the Western Australian Planning Commission and Chief Executive Officer of the Joondalup Development Corporation in Perth; Planning Manager for Metropolitan Adelaide in South Australia; Director of Planning in the Northern Territory and Senior Urban Planner with the Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation and National Capital Development Commission. International experience includes 3 years in the United Kingdom in environmental planning and urban renewal; local government capacity building in South Africa; and strategic planning advisor for Riyahd, Saudi Arabia. Michael is immediate Past-President of the Planning Institute Australia (Queensland Division) a Board Member of the Centre for Subtropical Design and the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA) among other positions.

It is of course to the advantage of the growth lobby to be on boards of charitable organisations and organisations that sound high-minded. They can give advice on funding, whilst being associated with 'worthwhile causes'.

New twists and turns in the growthist philosophy of manufactured consent

The theme of the Jon Faine/AHURI show seemed to be to present as a kind of philosophy the following message: "We" have now been through the McMansion greed phase where everyone aspires to a big house. Now we are happily downsizing and looking at what we can salvage from those [enforced] decisions, because there are more on the way and resistance is futile."

The AHURI/Faine show was taking phone calls from suspiciously docile and mini-minded people. I say, "suspiciously" because the calls were in such massive contrast to those received the day before on the subject of 457 visas pushing Australians out of work.

For instance one woman rang in saying that her family had lots of money to buy a big block with a big house, but had purposefully elected to move into a small house with 'only' three bedrooms and one toilet - which she added tonily was "actually in the bathroom!" The stated reason was to avoid the division and isolation of family members that occurs when they are all distributed within a multi-lifestyle roomed dwelling.

Uncriticized was the fact that this purported lifestyle decision was really a lifestyle decision, i.e. the one-bathroom woman had a choice. For most Victorians, where they live is a Hobson's choice: it is what they can afford in an unaffordable market where 457 visas make the situation worse. It is also anti-social that our shelter, self-sufficiency and primary outgoings should be consigned to a 'market' where no-one has any political pull unless they have a lot of money. AHURI, with its government funded track record of cooperating with the big commercial developer boys can say and do nothing strong in this area.

Brave new world

Another female caller said how wonderful the retirement village was that she and her husband had chosen to move into, from a four bedroom house with a big garden in the country - which was much too big. [Such a common problem - not!]

"It's such a young place: we are only 60 and some of the people there moved there when they were in their mid-fifties!" Jon Faine asked the woman questions about what made the place so young. She gave a list of 'activities' that the residents all do there. It sounded like a holiday camp for children. Among the activities were bowls, exercises, crafts... No hint of political engagement. No hint of adult responsibility. It gave the impression that the people who go to retirement villages are totally given over to consumption and self, incidentally filling the pockets of developers, depleting their local communities of stability, and cashing in their children's inheritance. If that is really the 'lifestyle' aspiration fostered in such places, what an empty lifestyle and what an abrogation of duty when we need adults who are not too busy to go out and represent the rest of us (working too many hours to pay off huge mortgages and unreasonable rents to keep up with what is going on, let alone engage).

We need more Mary Drosts, Julianne Bells and Lady Hamers to balance out the commercial infantilisation of our elders. See "Anti-Growth Lobby: Women in politics: why don't more participate - or do they? (Melbourne, Australia)"

The truth is that those who can even afford to go into some kind of 'retirement village' are a distinct minority. "The number of households who own their home outright has fallen since 1995 from 42 per cent to 34 per cent" (AHURI "Home ownership".) A lot of us are destined for boarding houses and special accommodation homes, if not the street. The shameful fact that Australian mining billionaire Gina Rheinhart is getting a ton of media coverage as she recommends third world wages for Australians means that some of us may be picking over garbage heaps for food quite soon.

Rising cost of oil means more poverty for all

This listener also wondered what these retirement village birds have left for their children and other relatives, as they capitalise on the only family asset in a brutal land and housing market that is likely to leave a growing segment of Australians destitute. It is obvious that they have left nothing for other Australians as they sell up and allow developers to move in and bulldoze perfectly good housing stock and land that could save a future generation from starvation and feudal subjugation as petroleum gets more and more expensive.

Nuclear dreaming

And don't tell me about nuclear energy saving us all.

http://www.indaily.com.au/?iid=67480&sr=0#folio=1
"BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers said in May this year that Olympic Dam mine expansion (to create the world’s largest copper and uranium mine) will not go ahead because general industry-wide cost increases, coupled with high energy costs, notably of diesel fuel, of which enormous volumes are required for mining, has made the project unviable. The project would have required something like five years and 2 billion litres of diesel fuel to remove a billion tonnes of overburden before ore mining could begin at more than 400m depth. Although BHP is still talking about finding another less energy intensive way of expanding, short of importing millions of low-waged immigrants with picks and shovels to dig up the uranium, ideas seem few and far between. South Australian Green,Mark Parnell, has pointed out that the costs of taxpayer subsidies for this fuel would have exceeded the royalties paid to the government by BHP to the tune of 60m per annum.

Where does that leave us?

Without power to maintain Australia's complex system of mechanised food production and transport, as well as overseas trades, Australians will need the productive backyards that many people had before the advent of cheap fuel and supermarkets. If we build over those yards they won't be productive. Food prices will skyrocket again. If you live in a high rise where will you get food if you are not one of a minority of very well paid people?

Somehow I don't think that AHURI will do anything to stop the growthist jugganaut that is bringing this situation closer every day.

Faine finished up the session by mentioning that he had recently heard of a couple who sold up and took off round Australia in a campervan to see how long they could go for.

If you sell your house for a campervan, you have liquidated most of your asset. If your campervan busts, what do you have left? Nonetheless, fewer and fewer Australians will own a house to choose to downsize or go out in a campervan.

The hold that the property development lobby has over the population and land-use planning system in this country has removed choice, and is causing continual reduction in living standards and quality of life. Even worse, this all comports concommitant reductions in democracy, as governments listen only to developers, Jon Faine and other public radio jocks massage the indigestible message by promoting the property lobby merchants as good-guys, and unregulated banks run the mortgage show. In a country subsumed to mass migration, what voice do most people really have?

What can we expect from the ABC?

I began this article with the question, "Should we expect more of Jon Faine and the ABC or are ABC announcers constrained to toe the government line that supports the property development lobby?"

I think we should be able to expect much more, but we don't actually know what the law and policy is for ABC employees. If they are allowed to express their views then we need more diverse representation of views and Australians are badly in need of better information than they are getting.

The so-called 'skills shortage' in Australia is mere industry propaganda to avoid training costs. This is despite Australia have an advanced industralised base and a deep capacity as an education training nation and indeed exporter of education! Industry argues that it doesn't spend on training because their trained staff leave - what an excuse!

Yes, government and industry bleat unsubstantiated a 'skills shortage' so they can bring more and more immigrants for selfish short term economic ends while avoid financial cost of education and training locally and moral obligations to do so.

Mining companies are the worst. Their international ring-in approach sourcing foreign contractors suits mining companies to a tee - no give and all take!

Remember BHP Billiton's immoral abandonment of Ravensthorpe in WA in January 2009?
[Read More]

BHP had promised the Ravensthorpe community that it was to be there for the long haul so workers came and small businesses invested, only to see BHP Billiton suddenly close its nickel mine near Ravensthorpe, move out and leave about 1450 locals out of work and up to 5000 dependent people devasted.

Mineral commodity prices are fickle, but mining companies don't care about human resource planning and training. They know to just run to Australian politcians and cry we can create jobs so give us trained workers. So another round of flood gate immigration rolls to stay long after the work has gone.

Now two years on and mining companies are again crying 'skills shortages'.
[Read More].

But did they invest in skills training of the pervious workforce. Don't be silly, training cost seat into profits and dividends and Marios Klopers' bonuses.

Contracting is rife in many industries where employers treat workers like disposable razors. Desperate workers from developing countries will do almost anything. It is a dumbing down of Australian standards. It has encouraged 'flood gate migration' and the Laborals have no population vision.

Read More about what BHP did by abandonning Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun...

I think mining companies are more contemptible than the banks. Why should anyone listen to their pleas to avoid a super mining tax?

Related comment: 'The List' determines their 'course'

A report by Engineers Canada (Ingeniéurs Canada) found that in 2006, well before the current economic crisis, Canada's seemingly thoughtless policy of acquiring practically unlimited numbers of engineers from all over the world had caused a massive glut of engineeers in Canada. As a consequence, "Two thirds of persons with a Canadian university degree in engineering were employed outside engineering occupations." Yet, in spite of this and in spite of the global financial meltdown, Canada, like Australia, continues with its high immigration program.

The following article was originally published as "New jobless figures should drive the last nail into high immigration's coffin" on 6 Feb 09 on www.immigrationwatchcanada.org.

New jobless figures should drive the last nail into high immigration's coffin

On Friday, February 6, Statistics Canada reported that Canada had lost 129,000 jobs in January. The big question all Canadians should be asking is this: What sense does it make for Canada to continue to bring in 250,000 regular immigrants each year and to allow an additional 200,000 temporary foreign workers to work here when unemployment in our own population continues to rise? As some Canadians know, Canada has the highest net per capita immigration intake of any country in the world. If Ottawa applies the most elementary logic, the Stats Can news should be all the evidence that MP's of all stripes need to drive the last nail into high immigration's coffin.

Undoubtedly, Canada's immigration industry will find excuses to maintain Canada's high immigration levels. But even the most gullible Canadians should now be demanding a dramatic cut to immigration. If politicians at all levels do nothing to fulfill their moral responsibility to this country's unemployed, then those politicians are abdicating their primary responsibility and deserve immediate censure from Canada's unemployed and the rest of the population.

Engineers Canada, the national organization of provincial and territorial associations of engineers, has recently completed one phase of a labour market study which adds further evidence to the argument that Canada can satisfy most of its labour needs within the country. Engineers Canada partnered with the Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists to do this study.

Here is a summary of findings of recent labour market research entitled "Engineering And Technology Labour Market Study" . The research was done by Engineers Canada. We have provided "Editor's Notes". Paul Martin, a professional engineer and a former board member of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, an engineering advocacy group, has contributed substantially to these notes.

The following three points are findings which Engineers Canada has extracted from Canada's 2006 Census.

(1) "Two thirds of persons with a Canadian university degree in engineering were employed outside engineering occupations. For those who obtained their degree outside of Canada, the proportion was over 80%."

Editor's note : These startling figures indicate a serious over-supply problem. As of 2008, Canada had more than 160,000 licensed professional engineers, and a great many more engineers without licenses. Here is an example of how over-supply occurred:

The Engineers Canada study cites Statistics Canada figures which show that in 2001, 15,863 immigrant engineers entered Canada. In the same year, Canadian universities graduated 8733 engineers.

Canada's primary responsibility is to the engineers it has educated, yet Ottawa and the provinces act as if their duty is to supply employment for engineers and other skilled workers from everywhere.

This total of 24,596 engineers could not be absorbed by the labour market. The Engineers Canada study comments: "It is not surprising that in these circumstances both recent immigrants and many recent graduates in Ontario experienced considerable difficulty in finding employment commensurate with their training." Furthermore, 2006 Census data indicate that there was already a surplus of Canadian-educated engineers relative to the needs of the labour market! This surplus, not "credential recognition", is the issue that the federal and provincial governments should be dealing with. Canada's primary responsibility is to the engineers it has educated, yet Ottawa and the provinces act as if their duty is to supply employment for engineers and other skilled workers from everywhere.

(2) "Individuals who obtained their engineering degrees outside Canada accounted for approximately 20% of all employment in engineering occupations. For technicians and technologists, the proportion was 6%, although this excludes persons in technology occupations who have non-Canadian educational qualifications in a field other than engineering or technology (e.g. general science)."

Editor's note : This quotation may shock many. They will be further shocked to read another part of the report which says that around 45% of all of the engineers in Canada are immigrant engineers. The Engineers Canada report further states that "The (2006) Census data also strongly suggest that a significant number of persons with a university degree in engineering were working in occupations for which they were over-qualified."

Again, the point to be made is that federal immigration policy has created a situation where Canada has imported a large number of engineers (and other skilled workers) that it does not need. This has occurred because MP's and others have assumed that Canada should collect all the engineers it can find and that it can find employment for them. The point is that there are limits to the ability of Canada's economy to absorb engineers or any other skilled group. In the desperate search for immigrant votes and in the face of threats from Canada's immigration industry to maintain high immigration, MP's have blamed this surplus problem on provincial certification agencies. The truth is that MP's are the ones who created this problem and it is high time that they take responsibility for their actions.

(3) "Approximately 30% of persons classified by the Census as working in engineering occupations were not university engineering graduates. The proportion is high and warrants consideration by regulatory bodies."

Editor's note : This should be even more shocking. Ottawa and the provinces should take careful note of this point. Employers are working under exemptions to the licensure rules and are hiring non-engineers because they are cheaper. For far too long, both Ottawa and the provinces have acted as if their duty is to pressure regulatory bodies to approve the credentials of immigrant engineers as quickly as possible and as if Ottawa and others are acquiring superior moral status by doing this. The point is that neither Ottawa nor the provinces give adequate consideration to whether immigrants who claim to be qualified are truly qualified.

The following are projections made by Engineers Canada :

"Short term outlook for 2008-2010" :

(1) "DEMAND : Overall employment demand for engineers, technologists and technicians was expected to increase by 3.6% per year between now and 2010. The down-turn in the U.S. and its spill-over effects in Ontario and Quebec will bring this projection down. Survey data suggest that hiring will be weighted to technologists/technicians."

Editor's note: When the down-turn prediction was made, the extent of the down-turn had not been anticipated. The additional large question that has to be asked is this: With the loss of additional engineering jobs, can the supply of Canadian graduates satisfy most future demand for engineers?

(2) "Supply" :

(a) "Graduates--Since 2002, new enrolments in engineering and technology have declined. "

Editor's note : It is no co-incidence that the huge inflow of immigrant engineers in 2001 had a significant effect on engineer enrolments after 2001. As other countries such as Australia have noted, unnecessary high immigration of skilled workers often brings dim employment prospects to young people and discourages them from entering professions they have dreamed of entering. Once again, it should not have to be said that Canada's primary responsibility is to its own people and its immigration policies should state that responsibility.

(b) "Immigration : Immigration of engineers peaked in 2001. In 2001 and 2002, more than two thirds of increases to supply in Ontario were derived from immigration and less than one-third from new graduates. Since 2001, owing to crowding in the Ontario labour market, there has been a decline of almost 70% in immigration of qualified engineers."

(3) "Outlook" : Western Canada: significant excess demand ; Ontario: excess supply ; Quebec : better than Ontario, but will drift into excess supply ; Atlantic : Excess demand conditions will abate by 2010.

Editor's note : Recent developments in the entire labour market have probably significantly diminished demand all across Canada.

(4) "Skill Requirements And The Nature Of Shortages" : "A serious skills shortage can, and often does, co-exist with serious unemployment."

Editor's note : This statement may not seem to make sense. However, employers regard skill shortages and labour shortages as 2 different things. To employers, the word "skills" means both technical university training and non-technical qualities such as business/communication attributes. Therefore, the phrase "skills shortages" means the absence of people with these qualities.

"Labour shortages" mean an actual insufficiency of potential skilled workers. Employers may declare that skill shortages exist, but there may be no real shortage of job applicants with the formal educational qualifications needed. Rather, employers mean that they are unable to recruit employees with the requisite non-technical qualities. Often, this means that employers are addicted to not having to train, develop and mentor their employees to the extent that they once did.

"Labour shortages" mean an actual insufficiency of potential skilled workers. Employers may declare that skill shortages exist, but there may be no real shortage of job applicants with the formal educational qualifications needed. Rather, employers mean that they are unable to recruit employees with the requisite non-technical qualities. Often, this means that employers are addicted to not having to train, develop and mentor their employees to the extent that they once did. It also means that employers hope the public will pick up the costs of educating Canadian engineers and also of permitting the immigration of vastly more engineers than the economy could possibly use!

Paul Martin's final Comment on the engineering labour issue will provide even more shock:

I was appalled to repeatedly hear engineering referred to as "the new liberal arts education" by senior members of the engineering regulatory and university educational community. It would appear that these people no longer see engineering education as training for a profession, and hence feel no responsibility to ensure that we educate numbers of engineers even approximately matched to our labour market needs.

"While sitting on the steering committee for Engineers Canada's "From Consideration to Integration" project, I was appalled to repeatedly hear engineering referred to as "the new liberal arts education" by senior members of the engineering regulatory and university educational community. It would appear that these people no longer see engineering education as training for a profession, and hence feel no responsibility to ensure that we educate numbers of engineers even approximately matched to our labour market needs. While it is true that some people go into engineering in university with no intention of ever pursuing engineering as a career, I'm sure that a great many would turn tail and run to other programs if their dean came out with such a statement to them in their first year! The fact that less than 30% of Canadian graduates currently bother to go on to professional licensure, and that Ontario has for many years granted more licenses to foreign-trained engineers than to engineers who gained their education in Canada, should give any prospective student of engineering serious reason to reconsider their choice of the educational program they have enrolled in."

The Engineers Canada report is entitled : Engineering and Technology Labour Market Study--The Results So Far : An Interim Report, November 2008

The report was funded by Human Resources and Development Canada (HRDC) as a part of phase III of Engineers Canada's "From Consideration to Integration" (FC2I) project.

It is downloadable as a PDF file (746K) from www.engineerscanada.ca.

Paul Martin has extensively researched the labour market for engineers. His work provides many valuable insights and is available at: www.geocities.com/martinsmoltenmetal

The ABC reports that the Rudd Government has ordered a review of the 457 visa scheme for foreign workers.

The same report cites Heather Ridout of the Australian Industries Group warning against any action that might ‘stem the flow’ of workers to Australia.

Meanwhile, Jewel Topsfield of The Age reported yesterday that the number of 457 visas granted has jumped from 39,500 in 2003-04 to more than 100,000 in 2007-08.

Sounds like - far from being stemmed - the flow has become a flood.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) is running a campaign (see also below) on its web site against the abuse of 457 visas and points out the corrosive effect that the scheme is having on the employment of apprentices in Australia. It strikes me that whatever the causes of Australia’s skills crisis at present, one sure way of making it worse is to make it easier to engage skilled tradespeople from overseas as an alternative to taking on apprentices.

Anyone concerned about the effect that 457 visas are having on Australia's local skills base could do worse than to support the AMWU’s initiative (see below).