20 February 2011

The wherefores of foreign construction workers

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times and the CFMEU are crying crocodile teards over the use of student visas to bring menial workers into construction sites.

Intriguingly it seems Commonwealth departments are the ones turning a blind eye to the illegal hiring.

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Canberra times + CFMEU … stopped reading there.

neanderthalsis said :

Wasn’t Canberra built by imported labour originally?

I heard it was built by Jackie Chan.

neanderthalsis9:22 am 22 Feb 11

Just the usual CFMEU scaremongering about the yellow peril, i.e. them foreigners what come over here and steal the jobs of honest, hard working Orstrayins because them nasty bosses pay them $2 an hour and make them share a 3x3m room with 84 other people. It makes a good story on Today Tonight.

The ACT labour force is quite small and is at full capacity. The ACT construction industry is suffering from both a skills and labour shortage at a time when demand for housing is on the increase. Since we all want to live in little boxes in new estates in the outer suburbs or in little boxes in inner urban infill, we need people to build them, and since those people can’t be found in Canberra, we need to bring them in from elsewhere. Yes, there are sham contractors out there, but they are generally found out and dealt with quickly.

Wasn’t Canberra built by imported labour originally?

Teards – when something or someone shits you to tears?

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