Matt Wade; 8/5/10
Hemkunt Kumar makes a living going through the rubbish. Each morning he collects the neighbourhood’s garbage bags and sorts them on the back of his smelly bicycle trailer. Bottles, tins and scrap paper are carefully separated and the rest hauled to a rubbish depot where dogs, rats and other animals finish off the leftovers. Mr Kumar is an expert recycler – the 20-year-old has eight years’ experience sifting through rubbish – and occasionally he gets lucky.
Marcia Langton; 24/4/10
Those living but not working in mining regions are suffering economic disaster Karratha and Roebourne are neighbouring settlements, one a port and mining dormitory town on the coast of the southern Pilbara region of Western Australia, the other an old town, a half hour inland, where most people are Aboriginal. Karratha has new brick houses, tree-lined streets, substantial amenities, a motel, shopping centre, restaurants and tennis courts. Roebourne is old, dusty, and showing signs of years of neglect: broken fences, potholes, weeds and flaking paint. Here and there a well-kept house and garden appear incongruously among the other homes. A TAFE college, a few offices and a basketball court signal that someone decided to spend some state money in Roebourne, rather than concentrating all new investment in Karratha.
Patricia Karvelas; 7/4/10; (3 Items)
The Coalition’s plan to cut immigration numbers has thrown it on to a collision course with major business groups, which say they will fight the policy over fears it could threaten Australia’s productivity. The strong business reaction came after The Australian yesterday reported comments by opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison that immigration was out of control and net overseas migration, which was running at about 300,000 people a year, needed to be cut back. Although Mr Morrison said he would retain the skilled migrant intake, that failed to appease business. Business Council of Australia president Graham Bradley said big business would resist any attempts to cut immigrant numbers. “You must look at this issue on a multi-year dimension, and not overreact to short-term statistics,” he said.
26/3/10
The Malaysian government must act urgently to combat widespread abuse of migrant workers and reform labour laws to give them better protection, Amnesty International has said. In a report released by the human rights group on Wednesday, it said many of the foreigners working in Malaysia are forced to work long hours in harsh conditions and are subject to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. Conditions in many cases amounted to little short of “bonded labour”, Amnesty said. “This report documents the widespread nature of exploitation in Malaysia… in every sector of employment,” Michael Bochenek, Amnesty’s director of policy, told reporters at a press conference in Malaysia marking the release of the report.
Malcolm Knox, 17/3/10
Having initially denied any wrongdoing, the Northern Territory employer of a Filipino 457 visa worker killed when he fell out of a utility has pleaded guilty to workplace violations and been fined $60,000. Pedro Balading, a 35-year-old father of three, was a Manila piggeries supervisor who arrived at Wollogorang Station in early 2007 and found himself isolated, underpaid and performing menial jobs. He asked to go home but was told by his employer, Panoy Pty Ltd, and the labour hire firm that brought him from the Philippines to complete his two-year contract. As reported in the Herald on August 28, 2007, Mr Balading died on June 6, 2007, when he fell out of a moving utility driven by another worker. Handing down the fine yesterday, the executive director of NT Work Health Authority, Laurene Hull, said the death was preventable: ”Panoy Pty Ltd failed to take appropriate steps to ensure the hazard posed by travelling in the back of utilities was known to the workers and the risks appropriately managed.”
17/3/10
Immigration authorities will send 20 illegal workers back to China after a police raid on a Brisbane food processing plant. The nine men and 11 women, all Chinese nationals, were working at the Morningside plant in the early hours yesterday. A criminal warrant was also executed at the factory by the Australian Federal Police and immigration investigators to get evidence of the workers’ employment. Two men detained had their visas cancelled for working in breach of their visa conditions and the remainder of the group had all overstayed their visas. Investigations are ongoing. A Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) spokesman said they would pursue with the Director of Public Prosecutions any possible criminal prosecution related to the hiring and exploitation of illegal workers.
Andrew Burrell & Nicolas Perpitch; 6/3/10
Jim Fynes bears no malice towards the Filipino migrant workers who kept their jobs on a Chinese-owned mining project in the Pilbara even as he and 53 other Australians were retrenched. But Mr Fynes would like a clearer explanation from the Rudd government and his employer, Ottoway Engineering, about why he was retrenched ahead of foreigners at the $5.2 billion Sino Iron project. The sackings appear to confirm that Australian employers are not legally required to favour Australian workers over migrants, either when retrenching or hiring staff. “It doesn’t seem right to me,” Mr Fynes said yesterday.
Andrew Burrell; 2/3/10
Industrial tensions in the Pilbara are escalating after an engineering contractor sacked 54 Australian workers at a $5.2 billion Chinese-owned iron ore project while retaining up to 70 Filipinos with similar skills. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union will today meet representatives of the Adelaide-based Ottoway Engineering in a bid to find out why migrant workers are apparently being favoured ahead of locals at Citic Pacific’s mine at Cape Preston, near Karratha. The AMWU says the Australian workers were “irate” after being told last week they had been retrenched. The controversy adds to weeks of mounting industrial friction in the region, with workers at Woodside’s $12bn Pluto gas project walking off the job last month in protest against their accommodation arrangements. One of the sacked workers who spoke to The Australian yesterday, but did not want to be named, said: “Legally, it (sacking Australians but keeping on foreigners) may be right, but ethically and morally it’s wrong. I am competing against foreign workers for a job and now my livelihood has been taken away from me.
Debbie Guest; 23/2/10
Unions representing about 2000 workers at Woodside’s $12 billion Pluto LNG project in the Pilbara say they have secured a guarantee from the project’s main contractor that could kill any talk of further wildcat strikes. With workers already facing fines of up to $22,000 for taking part in illegal strike action earlier this year, three unions will hold a mass meeting tomorrow to discuss changes to their accommodation. Representatives from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union will tellabout 2000 workers that those opposed to “motelling” have been guaranteed permanent accommodation at a nearby camp.
Tony Koch; 17/2/10
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest’s goal of finding jobs for 50,000 Aborigines is almost half complete. The Queensland government became the first state government to commit to Mr Forrest’s Australian Employment Covenant, offering 2800 employment opportunities to indigenous applicants in the public sector and adding to the 17,000 jobs employers throughout Australia have already made a commitment to provide. As the scheme continues to grow, Mr Forrest said the persistent criticism employers levelled at first-time indigenous workers – that they didn’t stick at the job – could be overcome by using a mentoring system. The Fortescue Metals Group chief executive, who is also chairman of the AEC, said his experiences from growing up with Aboriginal children on a cattle station, and more recently as an employer in mining ventures, had convinced him that a “one-on-one” system would work where the mentor was committed to ensuring the indigenous employee was properly trained.
Natasha Robinson; 10/2/10
Indigenous people number up to half the workforce erecting housing in some Northern Territory communities under the $672 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program, with the first houses built under the program reaching completion. Wadeye, 400km southwest of Darwin, this week became the first remote community to receive houses under the program, with the construction of two homes. Tenants received the keys on Monday. The federal government insists the workforce employed by the building alliances contracted to construct more than 700 homes in remote communities must be at least 20 per cent indigenous. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said yesterday more than 50 per cent of the workforce employed under the program in one Tiwi Islands community was Aboriginal. She said in Nguiu there were about 50 indigenous full-time workers employed in the program.
Ruth Ostrow; 30/1/10
It was a few years ago. I needed to renovate a veritable shack I’ bought to live in. I was nervous because all the people I’d asked for recommendations vis-à-vis builders and tradesmen would recount horror stories and moan, “Never again.” Meanwhile, I watched a neighbouring property being renovated in record time, with the owners full of praise. I went over to the builder to find out if he’d take on my house. To my surprise he was completing some finishing touches with his feet, having been a thalidomide child and born with malformed limbs. He worked closely with his dad, a semi-retired gentleman in his senior years, who loved working with his hands. I knew I’d found the perfect team. And I never looked back. My renovation was done quickly, with no fuss, within budget, and with good craftsmanship as both dad and son took pride in everything they did themselves or contracted out.
Paul Myers; 30/1/10; Weekend Australian Magazine
Gina Sebastian and Frederick Cox have never heard of Wave Hill or Vincent Lingiari, the Gurindji elder who led the epic 1966 Aboriginal walk-off from English aristocrat Lord Vestey’s Northern Territory cattle station. That momentous event, which changed the human landscape of the northern pastoral industry, occurred in another place and time, far removed from contemporary life and its limited opportunities in remote areas of the far north. But Sebastian, 26, and Cox, 18, are two striking examples of young indigenous people building a new future for themselves on country where the legendary skills of Aboriginal stockmen were forged from the mid-1800s. Beyond the good intentions of many, and the failure of governments to deliver meaningful careers for young Aborigines, indigenous people are taking it upon themselves to turn back the clock, if only nominally, to a time when station jobs were there for the taking and good stockmanship was second nature to any lithe youngster willing to get in the saddle.
Natasha Bita; 28/1/10
Chronically ill foreign workers and their families, including those with HIV-AIDS, will be allowed to settle in Australia for the first time as the Immigration Department loosens its stringent health rules to alleviate the skills shortage. The department is widening a loophole that lets it waive the health requirement for some sick dependants of Australian citizens. Taxpayers will spend nearly $60 million on healthcare for 288 migrants granted special clearance last financial year to live in Australia, despite failing health exams. These included 59 cases of HIV infection, 10 of cancer and 26 of intellectual impairment. Most of the waivers were granted to the foreign partners of Australian citizens.
Hani Hazaimeh; 13/1/10
Ishara Hemanthi, a Sri Lankan domestic helper who was admitted to a hospital for injuries allegedly inflicted by her employer, was bailed out on Monday after spending 12 days in prison, according to the Sri Lankan embassy. Hemanthi was detained at the Jweideh Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre after the employer filed a lawsuit accusing her of sexually abusing their seven-year-old daughter, according to the embassy’s lawyer Motasem Yassin. He added that Hemanthi’s employer also lodged another complaint with the authorities, accusing her of stealing JD1,000, a diamond ring and two gold rings… “The interrogation was conducted without a translator, although the prosecutor knew that the defendant could not speak or understand Arabic, and without the presence of any representatives from the embassy,” Yassin said, adding that the prosecutor ordered that Hemanthi be detained for 14 days. Despite the fact that the domestic helper filed a complaint against her employer with the authorities, her lawyer said the employer was never arrested or questioned by the police… Hemanthi, who arrived in Jordan in November 2008, ended up in the emergency room with severe bruising and swelling all over her body after she made it to her country’s embassy in search of help.She told The Jordan Times last month that she endured daily beatings.
13/1/10; http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=23077
Fourteen men and a woman have been charged in connection with the largest human trafficking and prostitution ring to have been busted in Abu Dhabi, a United Arab Emirates newspaper reported on Monday. The defendants are accused of involvement in a ring which allegedly promised jobs in the oil-rich UAE to 13 women, most of them from Morocco, but then forced them into prostitution, The National reported. “There was the recruiter in Morocco, the kingpins in the UAE who oversaw the logistics, and handlers to control the women,” the English-language newspaper said. “Then there were the women, all lured here in the hopes of a good job only to find themselves enslaved in a seedy underworld of prostitution.” According to court testimony, the women were kept locked in a villa and several flats after their arrival in the Gulf Arab state, then beaten and threatened with death to force them to work as prostitutes, it said. The Abu Dhabi court is to issue a verdict in the case on January 17.
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