From The West:
Govt rejects call to cut immigration
20th February 2009, 10:14 WST
The federal government has rejected research which shows its $42 billion economic stimulus package will not save jobs unless Australia's immigration intake is slashed.
In a paper to be released on Friday, demographic experts warn that new permanent and temporary migrant workers will soak up the 90,000 jobs the package is supposed to support.
That is because the immigration intake will exceed the number of jobs the commonwealth was trying to protect, The Australian Financial Review reports.
The experts advocate cutting the skilled intake to between 40,000 and 50,000 visas - down from a projected 133,500 - and forcing employers who want to import staff to prove that local skills are not available.
"It seems to me that this research could not be right," federal Employment Minister Julia Gillard told ABC Television.
"We are expediting the immigration of people who have the skills that we need."
Meanwhile, a key employer group says the research recommendations amount to a form of protectionism.
"The skilled program... can't be turned off and on," Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) chief executive Heather Ridout told ABC Television.
The government needed to be very careful about "chopping" immigration numbers, she said, adding that employers were committed to current intake.
"If we do not keep the immigration scheme robust our economic growth potential will be much reduced."
Original article
"It seems to me that this research could not be right."
Notice how Gillard dismisses the research out of hand, without even bothering to provide any evidence that the research is "not right", simply because she doesn't like the conclusion. Gillard's comments show that the Federal Government is committed to immigration irrespective of its effects on the existing Australian population. It is not prepared to even consider the possibility that importing record numbers of foreigners during a period of economic contraction and rising unemployment is a bad idea. In Gillard's words, immigration will continue, even if it means large numbers of Australians being forced to compete directly against foreign citizens for a declining number of jobs.
"We are expediting the immigration of people who have the skills that we need."
Oh, like more hairdressers and unemployable non-English speaking accountants?
"The skilled program... can't be turned off and on."
Yes, it can. The Government could slash immigration numbers tomorrow if it wished to.
"The government needed to be very careful about "chopping" immigration numbers, she said, adding that employers were committed to current intake."
I'm sorry, Heather Ridout, but I wasn't aware that Australia's immigration programme existed for the sole benefit of employers who only care about ensuring the uninterrupted influx of cheap labour.
"If we do not keep the immigration scheme robust our economic growth potential will be much reduced."
Wrong. Advances in productivity and technology, not increased labour inputs, are critical to economic growth.
3 comments:
If Australia maintains its current regime of high immigration numbers during a recessionary period touted as the worst in the post-war era, it will simply prove beyond doubt that Australia's immigration program has become divorced from serving the real needs of Australia and Australians. It is immigration for immigration's sake; to property speculators happy by ensuring steady and ever increasing demand for housing; to keep wages down and party contributions from the business community up; to pander to ethnic voting blocs and satisfy their neo-colonial aspirations by assuring them that the influx of their countrymen will continue unabated, further cementing their permanence, prevalence, and eventual dominance in Australian society.
In the end, of course, it is Australians who will end losing the most - their jobs, their prosperity, their chance at affordable home ownership, their quality of life, their natural environment, their culture and national identity, and even, eventually, their country itself.
Julia Gillard is NOT Australian she is a dirty POM born in Wales. GO home Gillard we don't need you here.
Gillard is a transnationalist. She was a member of the Socialist Forum right up to 2002, serving a significant amount of her time as a Director of that organisation. She does not believe in Australia or its unique national character. The essence of her religo-political views is that of the Fabians. I'm surprised you people are surprised.
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