Don’t get your hopes up to high yet;
theaustralian.news.com.au/st … 02,00.html
Push to bring in overseas truckies, farmhands
Victoria Laurie and Paige Taylor
July 13, 2006
FOREIGN truck drivers and farmhands could be brought toAustralia as part of an overhaul of the guest-worker program designed to address chronic skills shortages.
The Immigration Department is reviewing the system of classifying occupations covered by the skilled migration program and is under pressure from employer groups to open the program to semi-skilled workers.
The new classification proposals are set to reignite the debate on whether Australia is importing unskilled workers. The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs maintained yesterday that Australia did not operate an unskilled guest-worker program, but conceded there waspressure for such a scheme from industry.
Employer groups and migration agents are hoping that more categories of occupations - from truck drivers to racetrack riders - will be listed in a new Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations drawn up by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and scheduled for release in September. It will replace the current Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, which is used by immigration authorities to measure whether a foreign worker has sufficient skills to qualify for a temporary migration 457 visa.
A foreign applicant must meet one of four skills levels listed by ASCO. The existing list excludes many semi-skilled workers that employers say are in short supply, including abattoir workers and general farmhands.
An Immigration Department spokesman said the department was examining the draft of the new ANZCO closely, but it was premature to draw any conclusions about its impact.
The push comes after job vacancies jumped by a stronger-than-expected 7.3 per cent in the three months to May to a record high of 155,000, despite unemployment running at just 521,000.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said he was not opposed to proper migration, but any attempt to bring in workers to drive down wages or take the jobs of Australian workers was “not on”.
A spokesman said Labor would oppose any move by bosses to use the new industrial relations laws to remove existing staff and fill the positions with foreign workers. “The Labor Party takes the use of the temporary migration visas to drive down wages very seriously,” the spokesman said.
Experienced truck drivers are not eligible to be brought to Australia under a 457 visa status, despite an acute shortage of drivers. But Australia’s biggest road freight operator, Toll Holdings, has already signalled it wants to import foreign workers as a short-term solution.
The Immigration Department has confirmed to The Australian that it is negotiating with the Australian Trucking Association over a proposal to bring qualified heavy-truck drivers and diesel mechanics to Australia on a temporary basis.
They would enter Australia as 457 visa holders under the terms of a special labour agreement. Other industries have made similar calls for a widening of categories in the guest-worker intake. Racing Victoria spokesman Chris Watson said the industry had already imported 50 Asian track riders under an agreement negotiated through the departments of Immigration and Employment and Workplace Relations.
He said the racing industry was suffering a shortage of track riders and stable hands in several states, and had formally requested a widening of skills categories in the new ANSCO to include riders. The categories currently were very limited, he said.
The labour agreements to bring in otherwise ineligible workers on 457 visas may partly account for the steep rise in visas issued in the past four years.
The total intake has risen from 40,633 in 2003-04 to 58,140 in the first 10 months of 2005-06. The figures include accompanying spouses and children.
Migration Institute of Australia president ■■■■ Glazbrook said the industry was looking forward to a wider range of occupations for which foreign workers might qualify.
Migration agents are currently restricted in the assistance they can offer employers due to the status of the current ASCO guide, Mr Glazbrook said. “It is 10 years old and terribly outdated, and the occupation categories were largely compiled in the late 1980s. It’s difficult for employers working in new trades areas,” he said.
Mr Glazbrook said rural industries were crying out for labour. He said he knew of potato farmers who urgently needed potato graders and packers, but who could not find an appropriate skills level for them. They could only come into the country if they fitted the category of horticulturist.
Skilled migration was to have been debated at tomorrow’s Council of Australian Governments meeting, but the states have lobbied to postpone the discussion fearing a political trap from the federal Government.
David Jolly, a former Immigration Department state head and now manager of Perth-based Australian Visas and Migration Services, said Western Australia alone had projects worth $90billion requiring skilled and semi-skilled labour. He said an increase in overseas workers was inevitable.
Marielle Sengers, from The Netherlands, said she walked into a job in Perth after waiting 18 months to get a working visa.
The 34-year-old receptionist said getting the visa was “very involved and took about 18 months … getting the job was so easy, I just walked in and showed my CV,” she said.
Ms Sengers did not qualify for the skilled migration scheme being used to ease the chronic shortage of tradespeople in Western Australia. Perth’s unemployment rate is a record low 3.5 per cent and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry has acknowledged the state’s skills shortage had become a general labour shortage affecting employers in a range of industries.
Ms Sengers’s employer, Globe Backpackers owner Santos Ezcaray, said he was delighted by the prospect of the skilled migration scheme being broadened.
He had experienced great difficulty finding permanent staff.
He said some of his staff were backpackers on working holiday visas but they stayed for a maximum of three months.
“You end up retraining people every couple of months, it gets expensive no question,” he said.
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I am breathless with antcipation. What they paying for a 200hr week.? 
Yeah Harry,
Can’t wait for my pittance of a wage to go even lower.
Didn’t you blokes have this same issue with Polish drivers?
No wonder Aussies are seen as 10 years behind the world,problem attracting people to an industry-easy go O/seas and recruit Africans,Middle East,etc etc illiterate and unskilled workers.
What was that small problem France had earlier this year?
I thought slavery was outlawed,I have seen the the proposed wages and so called conditions our new Australians will be working under. 
No surprises there,then. 
Here its got to be about as good as it will ever get but its taken all my lifetime to get there. But ,as you know, the British & Irish governments have opened the door to about 70 million new chums. All the rest of Europe has put a 7 year wait on new EEC states before they can work there. So here I don`t think the pay will go up much in the foreseeable future. But the good thing with being in the EEC we can look forward to lots more rules & regs that placates the car drivers. ( I have given you a rough idea whats happening here but I am sure that there will be people that will post on this thread that will be up to speed on the finer points, )
This is something that may interest me. Most of my family live in Oz and I would be interested in going and working there for a period of time ( they don’t specify how long the Visa is for) with out emigrating. My first thoughts were on wages and conditions as Boots has already mentioned. I don’t mind doing a fair days work but I want a fair days pay for it. I shall follow this with interest, though I have a sneaky feeling it might not turn out well.
knight It might be a good way of seeing the country. But long term its a question of the cost of living ect.
This is just what i’ve been waiting for My phone bill is about to go thru the roof 
Friday, 14 July 2006
The States largest Union, the LHMU, has entered the debate over the massive importation of overseas labour, using the Howard Governments Visa 457 rules.
“WA Marginal MP’s need to take note of a serious message: If this continues, we will come after you boots and all right up to polling day,” said Sue Lines, Assistant Secretary of the LHMU.
The threat of targeted marginal seats campaigning on the issue follows confirmation from the Department of Immigration that it is considering allowing truck drivers, farm hands and other semi skilled labour to flood into Australia.
“This extension of the rules is a threat to workers in every industry, skilled or unskilled. Visa 457’s have been shown to drive down wages and conditions, with foreign workers suffering first, and the working conditions of Australians being the next to go,” said Ms Lines.
“West Australians do not want this. The Howard Government now only listens to the Business Community, who will employ anyone if it saves them a buck.”
“The only ones who support this policy are the major donors to Liberal Party head office, Big Business. Big Business will not save marginal MPs and I suggest they take serious note of my warning.”
The LHMU has emphasised that the threats are not empty rhetoric, saying Unions were united in their opposition to importing underpaid foreign labour and the LHMU was amassing an ‘education fund’ to bring the practice to an end.
“WA’s marginal MP’s are sitting on the backbench just giving the nod to anything the Department of Immigration proposes. I warn them that they are sitting ducks on this issue and we will be happy to pick them off come polling day.” concluded Ms Lines.
This is the website for anyone interested in driving in Australia,looks like you need an Australian company to give you the go ahead;
australia-migration.com/page … ts_457/307
Boots,
I am not anti immigration but the new industrial laws in Australia want unskilled Africans etc to work for no minimum wage.
And you thought Thatcher was bad.
Are truck drivers the next to be added to Skills in Demand?
Published on: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:42:18 GMT
Nick Grimm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that Australia’s trucking industy is lobbying the Government to have truck drivers recognised as skilled workers. According to the latest official figures, more than 150 foreign workers are arriving here every day in response to the nation’s shortage of skilled workers. Now the transport industry wants to deal itself into the game, arguing there aren’t enough trained truck drivers to keep the wheels turning, underscoring just how widespread the shortage really is.
The problem for the industry is that truck drivers are regarded as only semi-skilled, making foreign drivers ineligible under the Federal Government’s skilled migration rules. But the union is arguing that the industry move is part of a strategy to drive down wages, and adds to the concern that Australia will simply end up with more and more low-paid foreign workers.
According to official forecasts, Australia’s total freight workload is expected to double in the next 15 years. That means a lot more big rigs on the roads and, of course, more drivers needed behind the wheel. The problem is where to find them.
The Road Transport Industry Group, the Australian Trucking Association, has taken a plan to the Federal Government encouraging the use of overseas workers.
‘Well, we see it as a possible short-term solution, as there are skilled drivers throughout Europe and various parts of the globe, that are eager to actually come to Australia because of the lifestyle we have,’ said Damian McFarlane, of the Australian Trucking Association. ‘Conditions here in Australia are very good, not just in terms of employment, but also lifestyle.’
Foreign-trained workers are already coming to Australia under the Federal Immigration Department’s 457 Visa. It’s a four-year work permit for skilled migrants. The catch for the trucking industry is that truck drivers aren’t classified as skilled workers; rather, they’re defined as semi-skilled.
If you look at the magnitude of the job, the average long-haul driver is given an asset worth more than $300,000, let alone the value of the freight. There’s a lot of trust. The skill level that’s required to operate that machinery or that technology is fairly high. So, I think, we can quite easily establish that yes, they are a skill,’ said McFarlane.
The Australian Trucking Association represents influential business interests like Australia’s largest road freight operator, Toll Holdings. It wants truckies’ special skills to be recognised so that they’re eligible for 457 Visa. The company declined a request to speak about the issue, but in its online newsletter argues that hiring foreign truckies is a better option than training Australian drivers.
’Gone are the days where it’s very much ‘my dad taught me to drive sitting on his knee and, therefore, I can drive a truck’ - that’s not the case, said McFarlane. ’It’s very advanced technology. These people are not just truck drivers; they are professional vehicle operators.’
Maybe so, but professional vehicle operators, or truckies as they’re known to most, are represented by a union that’s threatening aggressive industrial action to put the brakes on what it sees as big business exploiting overseas workers desperate for a job. Meanwhile, is this the thin edge of a wedge being pushed into the Immigration Department’s skilled migration scheme? For its part, the Australian Trucking Association admits they’re not alone in seeking to widen the existing definition of skilled migrants.
’I know that we’re not the first industry group to go down this path and I’m sure we won’t be the last. I think there’s a message for the community at large: that we need to look closely at the skills that we’re training our young people with,’ said McFarlane.
The Immigration Department says negotiations on an agreement with the trucking industry over importing drivers are continuing.
Why don`t you have one thread…?
As i tell all poms, STOP converting the $ back to £’s and making comparrisons, what you have to take into account is the fact that the cost of living in Australia is far cheaper than over here, so your wages go a lot further
No matter where you go in the world there are truck driving jobs that pay poor, average and some that pay well.
Its just the same old same old. Big business pushing for cheap labour instead of addressing the issue on the ground i.e. why are 500,000 out of work when there’s a shortage of labour? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you Boots cos we’ve had a free for all in this country with UNCONTROLLED migrants coming in. We’ve yet to see the worst in my opinion.
as a rough guide you can use the macdonalds big mac index to compare how long you have to work to buy a big mac which is a comodity the same in many countries in sydney aust the trailer driver rate is $20 an hour a big mac is $3.00 so $20 divide by $3 equals 6.6 big mac,s for 1 hour work
in uk i dont know what the hourly rate would be but say 10 pound an hour a big mac is 2 pound thats 5 big macs for 1 hour work
if the uk figures were right you would be better of in aust
tonka
Tonka, never tought of it like that, But I like your way of working out cost of living!!
I get asked the cost of living in NZ all the time, Does it really matter if your happy??You kanae put a price on Lifestyle!! 