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SKILLS LACK STRANGLES ECONOMY

This was the exclamatory heading of an article in Queensland’s Courier Mail on 25th August. The journalist went on to say that the skills shortage in Queensland is “accelerating alarmingly as almost 42,000 workers are urgently needed to head off an employment crisis that is stifling the state’s economy”. The article went on to make these assertions:

The mining boom in the north of the state is behind the shortages
Manufacturing and technical trades are the worst hit
Business lobby groups insist that hairdressing and health are in dire straits
Vacancies in skilled areas have increased 13 percent in two years; population growth has been just 5 percent in the same period.
The problem will worsen over time because of a declining birthrate and retirements in an ageing workforce
There are signs that the state government’s concentration on the TAFE system as a panacea is not working and that there should be encouragement given to private sector skills training suppliers (Work 4 U in Australia™ management can confirm that skills re-training for Asians is being strangled in Queensland by inflexible bureaucrats in the TAFE system) Ms Beatrice Booth, president of Commerce Queensland, you’d expect to have her finger on the pulse. “Not much has changed and businesses are still suffering,” she is reported to have said. “All we have seen is a lot of tinkering around the edges that has failed when what we need is bigger initiatives, particularly on the worker migration front.”

We at Work 4 U in Australia reckon that business seems obsessed with government solving the problem. We’re challenging Ms Booth and other business people to do something to solve their problems at a micro-level. Indonesia has nearly 250 million people, many of them with the skills Queensland needs. Why not sponsor them under the improving 457 visa program?

MINIMUM SALARY LEVEL INCREASE FOR 457 VISA HOLDERS

On 23 May, Minister for Immigarion and Citizenship announced among other things, an increase in MSL's of 3.8 percent fro 1 August 2008.

* MSL (Cities) up from $41,850 to $43,440

* ICT (Computer) Professionals up from $57,300 to $59,480

* MSL (Regional) up from $37,655 to $39,100

The new levels will apply both to existing 457 visa workers and new entrants. And if there is an award or agreement in place that prescribes a level of salary that is highr than the MSL, then this is the salary that must be paid under Australian law.

Mr Evans said that the MSL change would apply to up to 24,000 temporary skilled workers, "depending on whether their employer had made any upward salary adjustments since their arrival in Australia."

"There are currently more than 68,000 primary 457 visa holders working in Australia, most of them are professional employees on incomes higher than the MSL."

Other Changes Announced

Senator Evans also announced that later in the year legislation will be presented to Parliament which will better define employers' obligations and employees' rights under the temporary skilled migration program.

* Penalties ranging from $6,600 for an individual to $33,000 for corporations who breach their sponsorship obligations

* A comprehensive information strategy including information packs in common community languages and face-to-face information sessions for new and existing visa holders

*Employers to make a personal declaration that they understand their obligations under the program. "I want better information supplied to help employers get access to the program. Lack of information or understanding will be no excuse for the few who do the wrong thing," said Senator Evans.

* An expanded outreach officer network

Currently there are no civil penalties. The Departtment of Immigration & Citizenship (DIAC) can only cancel or suspend an employer's approval as a business sponsor of temporary skilled workers if that employer underpays or in other ways exploits a worker.

Another welcome development on its way will see DIAC and the Federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations establish a formal inter-agency framework for considering labour agreement proposals. Hopefully this will see considerable time shaved off what has been a notoriously slow process.

And there's more..........

From 1 July, there will be just three centres for processing 457 visas: Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. In the words of one official from Queensland, that is sure to speed processing up, the Sydney office having proved itself to be much quicker than the Queensland office over time.

Here's hoping that an end is in sight for slow, slow, slow processing of applications at the Australian end.

On that point, the officer said that DIAC is targeting three weeks for occupations in critical shortage. You can find a list of these occupations by clicking on LINKS, then clicking on the website of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, then following the prompts.

SHORTAGES OF WORKERS IN HEALTHCARE SIMPLY ASTOUNDING

A report compiled by the Weekend Australian newspaper for publication on 24 May 2008 contained statistics and assertions that were astounding to say the least.

Did you know that there will be a national nursing shortfall of close to 40,000 within two years? Or that the latest workforce survey released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that there are now close to 300,000 registered and enrolled nurses working in Australia, 55 percent of the total Healthcare workforce?

Or that 98 percent of nurses are females, many of whom are likely to interrupt their working lives to have families and too many of whom, according to the Federal Government, will never return? Or that there are estimated to be 30,000 qualified nurses outside the system?

Or that there are currently 1.9 million Australians over 65 and that this figure will grow to 3.8 million by 2030 and will continue to grow until 2050?

In the lead-up to the Federal election in October 2007, the now Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised that he would deliver 10,000 extra nurses into the health and aged care systems by 2012, nearly 80 percent into public heath systems around the country.

True to his word, the Rudd government delivered a Budget in May offering a range of incentives and goodies designed to increase interest in returning among nurses no longer working in healthcare and youngsters looking for university courses to deliver them into good jobs for life.

But he and his Minister for Healthcare and Ageing admit that these incentives are not likely to achieve immediate results and in fact, talk in five hundreds and one thousands, nothing like the 40,000 needed over the next two years.

The challenge for Work 4 U in Australia™ lies squarely in how we can satisfy the requirements of the various nursing councils in Australia to enable nurses from Indonesia who hold 5 year degrees (as opposed to Australia’s 3 year degrees) and have achieved IELTS scores of 7 to help relieve these desperate shortages.

Believe me, we’re working very hard on just that. Hang in there!

QUEENSLAND HEALTH MINISTER CONFIRMS NURSE SHORTAGES

The Queensland Health Minister, Hon Stephen Robertson, released a statement to the media on 3 May 2008 in which he said “at January 2008 there were 1,537 full-time equivalent (FTE) vacant nursing positions in Queensland Health”.

Of these, “119 positions were deemed critical”.

“Clinical specialties reporting the highest proportion of nursing vacancies across the state are: medicine, rural/remote, aged care, mental health, midwifery, critical care, surgery”.

One can only speculate on what the number would be if we included private hospitals, medical centres, private medical practices and private special needs and aged care facilities.

Mr Robertson said that Queensland Health would ramp up a recruitment drive in New Zealand in the second half of 2008 which will surely serve to exacerbate the drastic shortages in nurses there. The carrot, his view that “Queensland nurses are …among the highest paid in the country.”

Although no numbers were given, it was implied from this media release that there are also drastic shortages of Enrolled Nurses and Assistants in Nursing.

Work 4 U in Australia has written to Mr Robertson offering to sit down with him and his officers to see if we can provide a solution for Queensland Health from our extensive resource of ready, willing and able Indonesian nurses. We now await his invitation, fingers crossed for our Indonesian friends.

QUEENSLAND TARGETS SOUTHERNERS' SKILLS

A recent projection put Queensland's population at about 5.4 million by 2025, an increase of 1 million. Needless to say, that sort of increase begs a huge increase in skilled services and the Queensland Government has initiated moves to attract people from southern states with the requisite qualifications. From August 15 to 17, the Queensland Jobs on Show exhibition will be held at the Sydney Convention Centre. Targets will be accountants, engineers, teachers, doctors and dentists and the bait will be waiting jobs and a great sub-tropical and tropical lifestyle. There is by all accounts a pool of 500,000 professionals in Sydney alone.

The trend for professionals moving north will undoubtedly continue leaving gaps in the skilled workforce in the south that can only be filled by foreign trained workers.

At Work 4 U in Australia™, we have begun the enormous task of collating and publishing resumes of people who've contacted us through our website. These can be found by clicking RESUMES, then seeking out the category and sub-category relevant to your needs. Good hunting!!

REALITY BITES. ACTU SUPPORTS 457 VISA WORKERS (17/08/08)

Sharan Burrows, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, recently came out in support of the recruitment of 457 visa foreign workers.

She was simply stating the obvious in saying that the continued recruitment of skilled workers from overseas is essential to the future economic prosperity of Australia and Australians.

Her statement will certainly have raised eyebrows among the faithful who have often been vociferous in their opposition to foreign workers. A recent example came from the Meatworkers Union which expressed concern that the Western Exporters goat processing abattoir in Charleville was guilty of brinkmanship, and unconcerned for the well-being of workers, when it recently shut its doors and retrenched 90 workers because of its inability to get approval for 457 visa workers.

BALI CONFERENCE SETS 457 VISA GUIDELINES

In the last week of March 2008, the Department of BNP2TKI organized a conference and workshops for 140 people in Bali to clarify issues of sponsorship of Indonesian employees by Australian employers. President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono installed BNP22TKI to work side by side with the Indonesian Labour Minister and his department with special responsibility for monitoring the treatment of Indonesian workers overseas.

First speaker at the conference was the head of the Department of BNP2TKI followed by the four Indonesian Consuls General in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin). Work 4 U in Australia's invited delegate, General Manager Djonny Suparman, felt that the messages sent to the guests by these speakers in this first instance were confused and confusing, the implication being that deals can be done to circumvent the strict Australian guidelines for 457 visa applications.

It was apparently a none-too-pleased Secretary of the Migration Branch, Department of Immigration & Ctizenship, Greg Mills, who was next to take the podium. Mr Mills was adamant that the procedures for arranging 457 visas are not open to negotiation, they are set in stone. These included the provision that workers are to be demonstrably skilled and that the levels of competency with the English language specified as required in the various job fields are met.

Following Mr Mills' speech was the keynote speech by the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, Teku Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb, and one by a Melbourne based Indonesian speaking lawyer who looks after migration cases from Indonesia. The ambassador stressed the need for Australian employers to appreciate the cultural differences between Australians and Indonesians and to offer a hand in friendship. He also talked of the boost to the prosperity of both nations to be had in Australians using Indonesian workers and of the fabulous work ethic of Indonesians.

The following day saw the head of the Department of BNP2TKI, the Consuls General and the Melbourne lawyer attempting to clarify the procedures in arranging 457 visas both in Australia and Indonesia followed by a visit to the International Training & Development Centre in Bali.

Mr Suparman was much more enthusiastic with the Workshops he conducted into the early hours of the morning than he was with the rest of the conference which he felt was "shallow" and tended to be dominated by agents from all over trying to jockey for favouritism with Indonesian and Australian officials. However he did comment that the positive outcomes from the conference were twofold: that the Indonesian Department of Labour, the Indonesian Ambassador, the Consuls General and all who worked for them were on constant standby to assist in the smooth handling of recruitment of 457 sponsored workers; and that people appeared to have left the conference with a better understanding of the legal requirements and the importance of Australian job specifications.

From these private after-hours workshops he walked away with these developments:

*Our Indonesian partners will now have three offices dedicated to recruiting for Work 4 U in Australia ™, two managed by medical doctors, one with a PhD in in biomedicine, a surefire indication that we are preparing the way to recruiting into the professions;

*Two hospitals in Surabaya have undertaken to train nurses to comply with the requirements for registration by the Australian Nurses and Midwifery Council (ANMC); the nurses selected for training will have a five year (not 3 as in Australia) degree, at least a year's experience, an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of at least 7 (highest score possible is 9); and be at least 159 cms tall; and the 3-6 month residential training program will be based around an Australian university curriculum accepted by the ANMC. Mr Suparman, since arriving back in Australia, has arranged to provide the curriculum used by Queensland's Griffith University to the training hospitals in Surabaya.

*The CV's of seventy odd people willing, ready and able to fill jobs ranging from medical and IT positions to chefs to motor mechanics. Summaries of these CV's will appear on our website over the next 2 weeks or so, after we've had the website redeveloped to accommodate them.

Exciting days ahead for both Australian employers and Indonesian workers.

7.30 REPORT CLARIFIES ABATTOIR CLOSURE

On 2nd March 2008, the ABC's "7.30 Report" examined the fallout from the closure of the Western Exporters' abattoir in Charleville.

It seems that the abattoir was the biggest goat abattoir in the world, processing 2,000 goats per day.Rearing goats for meat has gained popularity among pastoralists in the South West region of Queensland in recent years and was looking towards a great future because of recent record rains. Sheep, formerly the primary revenue source in the region are now down to just one-tenth of their peak numbers.

The Western Exporters abattoir exported $30 million dollars worth of goat meat a year, mostly to the US and Canada, was the biggest employer in SW Queensland, bigger than the local government, and has just laid off 90 local workers who the Managing Director and the local mayor fear will never return to Charleville, thereby exacerbating the problem. Fifteen workers were holders of 457 visas and now have 28 days to find work or they're off home to Vietnam.

The sticking point in its attempts to bring in sponsored workers from overseas has been the refusal for two and a half years by Western Exporters to sign a labour agreement which guarantees the training of Australians as abattoir workers. A clearly ridiculous condition, given the location and the widespread belief in the outback that a labour shortage is endemic.

To quote reporter Mark Willacy, "It's not just Western Exporters which sees foreign workers as part of the solution to the rural and regional labour crisis. A report by the National Farmers' Federation estimates there's a shortfall of 100,000 workers in the agricultural sector, and it suggests 457 visas could be used to bring people to the bush.

Denita Wawn from the Federation had this to say: "We believe that the 457 visa needs some flexibility, and we are continuing our proposal for seasonal workers ....not to displace Australian workers, but to supplement those shortages where Australians aren't available to undertake seasonal jobs.

New Zealand are running a scheme currently as a trial which looks at bringing South Pacific workers into New Zealand to work in a range of occupations. We've said we'll look at how that trial goes, make an assessment and then take any decision as whether or not that could be appropriate for Australia. " Desperate times in the west!

Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, implied that he was now on the job of trying to overcome the impasse created by his bureaucrats, despite his view that all that was being asked of Western Exporters was the same as is asked of other more compliant Queensland abattoirs. But those abattoirs aren't situated in areas as remote as Charleville!

And a final word from Neil Duncan, proprietor of Western Exporters: "If we can't get the Government to see the commonsense in all this, the plant will be put into mothballs and that's the way it will stay."

I have it on good auhority that government heavily subsidised the establishment of the abattoir in the first place, so how ridiculous is the whole situation?

IN MY SUMMARY OF THE BNP2TKI CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP CALLED "BALI CONFERENCE SETS 457 VISA GUIDELINES" I SUMMARIZE THE INTRANSIGENT VIEWS OF GREG MILLS, SECRETARY OF THE MIGRATION BRANCH OF THE DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP. UNLESS THEY CAN SUCCESSFULLY LOBBY THE MINISTER, THE NATIONAL FARMERS FEDERATION LOOKS TO BE PEEING AGAINST THE WIND IN HOPING FOR CHANGES TO THE WAY BUREAUCRATS ADMINISTER THE 457 VISA SYSTEM.

Bob Lamont, CEO

NEW ZEALANDERS OUT OF LINE

Rules is rules and they're not meant to be broken in Indonesia anyway.

Today, March 25, Bandung newspaper Pikiran Rakyat, reported that a New Zealand employer which had attempted to contract 149 Indonesian workers was in serious breach of laws governing the recruitment of Indonesian workers for overseas service.

The head of the Indonesian Registered Recruitment Companies Association in Jakarta, Yusuf Moh Yamani, stated that the Indonesian government is on high alert to catch anyone intending to break the laws and regulations on manpower supply to overseas employers.

The Indonesian Man-Power Supply Program developed by the Indonesian government makes it mandatory that if you want to recruit Indonesian workers you must do so through an Independent Registered Indonesian Recruitment Company (PPTKIS); and Indonesian Labour Ministry officials are all over the recruitment of workers like a rash, it seems. In fact, tomorrow the rules will be re-inforced in the minds of recruitment specialists and foreign immigration bureaucrats alike at a Bali conference being attended by Work 4 U in Australia's general manager, Djonny Endang Suparman, on the personal invitation of the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia.

We take the chance to emphasize that Work 4 U in Australia's Indonesian partners Yanbu Al-Bahar fit the bill, perfectly. They are an Independent Registered Indonesian Recruitment Company (PPTKIS) and we are industry leaders in the recruitment of Indonesians as 457 visa workers.

BUREAUCRATIC HOLDUPS SEND MEAT EXPORTER TO THE WALL

The Easter break brought some interesting news in respect to 457 visa workers.

Firstly, the Weekend Australian reported the demise of “the biggest employer in South West Queensland (which) has shut down because of its inability to import foreign workers, prompting calls for urgent reforms to 457 visa requirements.”

On the same day Queensland’s own daily the Courier Mail gave coverage to a migration agent working in Brisbane who managed, while unashamedly self-promoting, to cast a brickbat their way over Immigrations and Citizenship’s role in making the process difficult for both Australian employer sponsors and most classes of foreign workers.

So the planets aligned on Saturday 22^nd March.

In Charleville, the goat abattoir and exporter, Western Exporters, bid sayonara to business saying that they were 60 staff short and none could be found. Ninety people including 15 Vietnamese are now walking the streets of Charleville and pastoralists in the area who’ve been turning over century and a half old practices of rearing merino sheep for their fleece in favour of rearing meat-sheep and goats are presumably looking down the barrel.

Intransigence by government department officers can light the match which causes a massive bushfire. Just take the time to imagine what the closure of a $30 million business, the retrenchment of 90 people, and the end of a facility to process the product of a surrounding district thousands of square miles in size will mean to a small outback town.

The proprietor told the Weekend Australian that the company had been trying for more than 2 years to get 457 visa workers in to help them out but had run into a bureaucratic brick wall.

“Nobody can get workers. It’s happening right across regional Australia,” he’s reported to have said.

The official position, it seems, is that Western Exporters failed an important condition of using 457 visa workers: training Australians to take their place. Work 4 U in Australia Pty Ltd is aware that Australian employer sponsors are supposed to demonstrate a satisfactory record of recruiting and training Australians, for example by showing training budgets. But how silly is that in times where any Australian who’s employable is employed – and we’re talking of a remote place 8 hours drive west of Brisbane.

It seems apparent that the migration agent referred to earlier would agree with Senator Barnaby Joyce’s demand for an overhaul of the 457 visa approval process. “When we start seeing Australian businesses shutting down, clearly we have to get moving on this.”

The agent’s comment was that the necessary paperwork and associated processes can be a real headache for businesses to organise but in our view that should not be impediment enough to see a business in desperate need go down for lack of staff.

Every commentator and his dog admits that Australia must attract foreign workers to keep the economy bubbling along and new Queensland Trade Commissioner, former premier Peter Beattie, has been given the job of trawling the US for suitable workers against a backdrop of increasing unemployment there.

There may be light at the end of the tunnel. Immigration and Citizenship Minister reportedly told the Weekend Australian that he expected to receive an interim report on the 457 visa process soon. Hopefully, that will recommend a speeding up of the process from Australia’s point of view: wouldn’t it be nice if instructions went out to officials to cut the nonsense and process applications quickly, as has been the recent instruction to Indonesian officials by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono?

STATISTICS ON 457 VISAS, VERY INSTRUCTIVE…..AND SURPRISING!

We have been able to get hold of some very enlightening statistics recently released by Immigration and Citizenship. The following tables compare the 457 visa intake in the 2007 financial year and the first half of this 2008 financial year.

Visa Recipients by Country of Origin

Country 2006-07 % of Total Jul-Dec 2007 % of Total

Britain 10,640 22.8 6,130 23.8

India 6,520 14.0 3,670 14.3

Philippines 3,980 8.5 1,870 7.3

US 2,680 5.7 1,850 7.2

China 2,640 5.6 1,570 6.1

South Africa 2,410 5.2 1,270 4.9

Ireland 1,590 3.4 850 3.3

Germany 1,580 3.4 810 3.1

Canada 1,370 2.9 790 3.0

Japan 1,160 2.5 540 2.1

Malaysia 1,060 2.3 530 2.1

France 900 1.9 500 1.9

Netherlands 690 1.5 350 1.4

Zimbabwe 580 1.2 310 1.2

Korea 540 1.2 300 1.2

Singapore 540 1.2 300 1.2

Others 7,790 16.7 4,100 15.9

Total 46680 100 25750 100

Visa Grants by State

State or Territory 2006-07 % of Total Jul-Dec 2007 % of Total

NSW 16,380 35.1 9,120 35.5

Victoria 10,180 21.8 5,510 21.4

WA 8,350 17.9 5,090 19.8

Queensland 8,110 17.4 4,120 16.0

SA 1,480 3.2 780 3.0

Tasmania 390 0.8 190 0.7

NT 880 1.9 380 1.5

ACT 720 1.5 320 1.3

Other 180 0.4 210 0.8

Total 46,680 100 25,750 100

The tables analysed

Analysis of the tables led me to these important conclusions:-

There is no mention of an intake from Indonesia; therefore the intake was less than 1% of the total in 2007 and the first half of 2008, if indeed there was any at all.

Non-English speakers from the Asia Pacific who were part of the 457 visa intake came from India, the Philippines, China, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, and Singapore; other non-English speaking suppliers were France, Germany and Holland.

In all 457 visa holders from non-English speaking backgrounds represented 42.1% of the intake in 2007 and 40.7% of the intake in the first half of this year.

Somewhat surprisingly, the biggest intakes were into NSW and Victoria – over 55% in 2007 and again in the first half of 2008.

Equally surprisingly, the corollary was that inputs into the mining boom states of WA and Queensland were just 35% in 2007 and 36% in the first half of 2008.

The question as to why begs asking. The view expressed to us, without anything more than anecdotal evidence based on figures of population growth by way of shift to Queensland and WA, is that skilled workers who have moved to the boom states seeking their riches, relatively cheaper housing and a sunnier climate, have left holes in the skilled workforce in NSW and Victoria that employers have found impossible to fill except by using foreign 457 visa workers.

457 visas by industry and job classifications

Also released were statistics by industry and job classification in the 2007 financial year intake. By industry, the biggest by far was the health and community services industry with 16% of the total. Other big importers were communication services (10%), property and business services (10%), manufacturing (9%) and construction (9%). Probably the biggest surprises were mining at just 8% and accommodation, cafes and restaurants at just 6% of the intake, although mining was up 26% on 2006 and the latter up 18%. By job classification, by far and away the biggest intake was of computer professionals (8%) and registered nurses (6%), double that of doctors (3%), trainee doctors (3%), business and information professionals (3%) and management consultants (3%). Others worthy of mention were cooks and chefs, welders (first class), software designers, specialist managers, metal fabricators and project administrators, all of whom represented 2% of the intake.

Consider Indonesians

If you’re looking to fill employment gaps in your business, certainly consider Indonesian workers. Like over 40% of the 457 visa intake over the past one and a half years, they are not born to the English language.

But like those 40%, to obtain a visa to work in Australia, they need to prove an appropriate level of competence with the English language.

By appropriate, I mean that the level of competence with English required of a doctor or registered nurse is higher than that of a cook; but competent in communicating in the workplace and understanding instructions given in English, they must be.

Work 4 U in Australia™ and our Indonesian partners are able to supply you with workers in every industry and of every job classification, discussed above – and more.

Cheers

Bob Lamont

CEO

Work 4 U in Australia Pty Ltd

WORK 4 U IN AUSTRALIA SEEKS AND GETS ENDORSEMENT FROM GOVERNMENTS

On 12 March 2008, the CEO and General Manager of Work 4 U in Australia Pty Ltd held talks in Canberra with Adviser to the Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Tim Friedman, and the First and Second Secretaries (Economic) to the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, Ratu Silvy Gayatry and Lynda Kurnia Wardhani.

CEO, Bob Lamont, and General Manager, Djonny Suparman, received a very warm reception from the respective representatives of both Governments which are equally keen to melt the rather frosty relations between them  that distinguished the Howard Government years (1996 - 2007) and cooperate in resolving the economic and social problems of both countries.

The upshot is that Mr Suparman is to be an invited guest of the Indonesian Government at the BP2TKI Conference and Workshop (on labour) in Bali on 27th and 28th March. He is certain to return with a wealth of information to help us in our vocation of recruiting suitable, hard working Indonesians for Australian positions.

What follows are some of the topics discussed in each meeting taken from our notes. The comments will surely be instructive to interested parties in both Australia and Indonesia.

Meeting with Tim Friedrich, Adviser to Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration & Citizenship at Parliament House Canberra, 12^th March, 12.30 pm

He confirmed that Indonesians were not being used in Australia and that most 457 workers were coming from Philippines, China, Britain and the US, the inference being that Work 4 U in Australia™ is indeed number one in the Indonesian recruitment field – and he stressed that our timing was spot-on given the thawing of relations between Australia and Indonesia.

He reacted positively to my remark that the US was going to need those workers back according to global economists and agreed with my further remarks that Australia’s productivity problems, long-term underlying inflation and balance of payments problems are down to a lack of skilled workers and are here to stay for 50 years.

He expected that there would be a reduction in Chinese because they were having trouble with IELTS.

He said that Chris Evans’ announcement of the 6000 places (in his 20^th February press release) was to do with migration, not 457 visas.

He agreed that the demise of the Howard government had seen something of a rush by both sides to ease the tense relations between Australia and Indonesia and was impressed by our information that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had made clear to the Indonesian press his keenness to remove any impediments (by the Directorates, Embassies and bureaucracy) to the smooth operation of a worker approvals system.

He confirmed that for classifications 1 to 4 the requirement was for an IELTS score of 7-9; it was only for classifications 5-7 that the necessary score is 4.5

He stressed in answer to my comment that I had inferred a dumbing-down of requirements for 457 visas from the 20^th February press release that the government has no plans to make the requirements under the 457 visa system easier.

He stressed that 5-7 classifications had to do with regional areas, not metropolitan areas and that 1-5 classifications went from senior managers through the professions to IT, nursing and “true” trades but that 5-7 related to lower skilled trades such as plastering, truck driving, supervisory positions in tourism and accommodation, and the like.

He provided us with a senior manager in the department as our point of contact (personal number) and told us that he would contact him to let him know of his desire for him to be of help to us.

He wanted our promise to keep him (and by inference, Chris Evans) in the loop.

Meeting with Ratu Silvy Gayatri , First Secretary (Economic) and Lynda Kurnia Wardhani, Second Secretary (Economic) on 12^th March 2008 at 3.00 pm at the Indonesian Embassy, Canberra.

We emphasised our determination to brief Indonesian workers on the Australian way of life on their arrival in Australia, after an earlier briefing by our partners prior to departure; to make sure that we protected their financial well-being; and to make sure they are settled comfortably into their life both at work and at leisure by the appointment of one salaried supervisor/life manager for every 40 workers.

We talked at some length of the cultural differences between Indonesians and Australians with special emphasis on the rough and ready sense of humour likely to be confronted by the Indonesian workers in isolated regional areas.

But on balance, we talked of the pluralism and multi-culturalism of Australia and legislation re-enforced tolerance Australians have for people of different racial, cultural and religious backgrounds, with some exceptions among our rednecks to be sure. Witness the over-whelming support for Prime Minister Rudd’s saying “sorry” to the stolen generations of Australia’s indigenous people.

And we talked openly and honestly about what I expected to be the biggest impediment to recruiting Indonesians: the possibility of fear among Australians that “Moslem” equates with “Terrorist”, something that will be tested overtime.

For the record, I believe I expressed my doubts that this is true. To elaborate I mentioned some or all of these notions in support of my view that thinking Australians are quite cross and embarrassed about things like: our inhumane detention centres for illegal immigrants; the holding of Hicks without trial by the US in Cuba; former Prime Minister John Howard’s “Pacific Solution”; the great lies of the past decade – the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the so-called “Children Overboard Affair” in the lead-up to an uncertain election; the summary vilification and deportation of an Indian Moslem Doctor without evidence of a link to terrorism; other failures by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police to support with evidence the treatment of suspects under our Anti-Terrorism laws; the Howard refusal to say a symbolic “Sorry” to our aboriginal people; and the refusal to sign Kyoto along with our Asian-Pacific neighbours in the face of strong evidence of global warming.

The First Secretary (Economic) was concerned that we had been thorough in our selection of Yanbu Al-Bahar as our exclusive Indonesian partner, expressing in particular her concern for the trend of such companies in Indonesia to farm out recruitment to contractors, resulting in deterioration in standards. We assured her that we had been as careful as we could have been, that financial control lay with us in Australia, that the relationship had been established by a legally enforceable deed of agreement , that Yanbu Al-Bahar had shown their keenness by opening a second office in Surabaya with an especially employed manager to run its Australian recruitment, that there was continual communication between the partners, and that the whole relationship is and will continue to be based on transparency between us and among all parties, employers, employees and respective governments.

VERY OWN GATEWAY

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in August 2007 made clear his determination to derive foreign currency by providing Indonesian workers into the glogal economy.

Old news but we were astonished to see with our own eyes recently that the President has put his money where his mouth is in providing overseas workers with their own gateway lounge and facility at the Soekarno-Hatta International airport in Jakarta. It is a purpose-built modern facility complete with its own immigration, customs and other government department officers for the Indonesian overseas workers to use when travelling through the international airport.

The standard of the airport facility is quite amazing and it will be sure to make the Inonesian overseas worker very proud to be an Indonesian citizen.The current Indonesian government is not only intent on encouraging improvements in skills among Indonesian workers to world's best practice but isendeavouring to make the processes of embarkation and repatriation as smooth and painless as possible for workers contracted overseas.

MINISTER INCREASES TARGET

On 20th February, Chris Evans, Australian Federal Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, announced in a media release that his department was targeting about 109,000 overseas workers in 2007-2008 for Australian industries where shortages in skilled labour were being experienced. This represented a 6,000 increase over earlier targets.

The significance of this for Work 4 U in Australia ™ is that on 17th February, Mr Evans was in Indonesia holding talks with his counterpart on subjects such as border security, the binning of the Howard Government's so-called "Pacific Solution" for unwanted/illegal immigrants, migration and skilled labour supply.So Indonesians are well and truly in the loop now.

Mr Evans also announced the extension of the system of Government sanctioned work agreements to allow into Australia foreign workers with limited English and lower skill levels. These agreements will allow for a reduction in minimum pay guaranteed under the visa 457. Sanctioned Work Agreements currently operate in the meat processing and agency fields. We are assuming that his announcement will see future opportunities for semi-skilled Indonesians in labouring jobs and back-of-house tourism.

For more information, click on our link to Immigration and Citizenship.

PHENOMINAL LABOUR FORCE GROWTH RATE PREDICTED FOR QUEENSLAND

Economists Econtech have released their Workplace 2012 report which predicts that by 2012, Queensland's labour force needs will grow by a phenominal 10.32%. This under-pins concerns in industry and all levels of government that we are facing continuing skilled labour shortages, shortages which will impact on inflation, productivity, trade, the current account deficit and Gross Domestic Product. The report goes on to predict that over the next four years Australia's labour force will grow by 6 percent to 11.7 million workers and the obvious conclusion to be drawn from this is that older workers will be encouraged to keep working and Australia must continue to import overseas workers under the visa 457 system or some other program aimed at skilled and semi-skilled workers.

The Northern Territory and Western Australia will need growth of around 8 percent and even the non-miners, New South Wales and Victoria, are looking at over 5 percent. In fact, a 6 percent increase in labour growth across Australia is needed over the next 4 years taking people in work to 11.7 million.

IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL BEING PRODUCTIVE?

News recently that productivity in Australia has fallen to its lowest level in 16 years. This decline in productivity means just one thing: yes, our workers are bludgers! Business has been hiring more workers but failing to gain any additional output.

The OECD, the world’s foremost economic watchdog and commentator, released a warning to Australia on 5 March 2008 that our workforce is lagging world leaders, despite our gross domestic product rising 3.9 percent last year.

The treasurer, Wayne Swan, had this response to the OECD’s comments: “What we have is a relatively strong economy but one that is absolutely shackled by very poor productivity growth and by capacity restraints that are pushing up inflation.”

What has poor productivity to do with inflation you might ask. The answer is that growth in output by Australian business, read Australia’s workers, is being outstripped by growth in consumer spending. The result is simply the flooding of the country with imports.

In analysis the situation is this: Australians are being overpaid for their level of productivity and they’re spending that overpayment, or the credit that that overpayment can get for them, on consumables.

There’s no secret to or fanciful hocus pocus about the measurement of productivity; it’s simply the measure of how much each worker produces every hour. The treasurer released figures pointing to an average productivity growth rate of less that 1 percent per annum over the past five years as opposed to 3.3 percent between 1994 and 1999.

“What this shows is that over a five-year period across the board we are performing very poorly and the figures today (productivity growth as of early March) show zero,” the treasurer said.

The OECD had this to say: “The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) – per-capita gap persists vis-à-vis the leading countries owing to a significant productivity shortfall.”

Indonesians have a fullsome reputation throughout the world of being keen, comptent and productive workers who actually take pride in their ouput.

MORE TO THE SNIGGER THAN MEETS THE EAR

A recent online survey iof 1,000 workers in Australia has found that 41 percent of workers think that negative attitudes are rife in the workplace, while most senior managers think everything is just rosy. Workers reckon that gossiping, sniping, and rumour mongering are epidemic and that it's the boss whose often the target.

This really brings two notions to the fore. Bosses who are blind to this sort of thing are presumably also blind to poor work habits among their staff; and poor work habits are equally obviously what's behind Australia's lack of productivity.

This is further evidence that Australian busineses have to look away from our shores to shore up productivity, not just of workers but of managers as well. Pun intended!