Pacific Worker Scheme 'won't Spark Right-wing Backlash'

The Age

Wednesday May 21, 2008

Jewel Topsfield, Canberra

A GUEST worker scheme for South Pacific Islanders will not spark a right-wing backlash by undercutting local wages and conditions, Immigration Minister Chris Evans says.

Senator Evans yesterday said he disagreed with incoming Labor senator and former union boss Doug Cameron's analysis that unskilled guest workers in Australia could lead to the rise of a far-right force similar to the British National Party.

Mr Cameron said experiences overseas showed guest worker programs pushed down wages and conditions for all workers.

"Overseas - in the UK, the US, Europe and in Asia - problems with migration schemes are there and we can't just sweep it under the carpet," Mr Cameron, former national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, told the ABC.

Senator Evans denied this. "Australia has matured about those issues," he said. "We've got a huge demand from agriculture for unskilled labour."

A proposal to introduce a seasonal South Pacific unskilled labour scheme, based on a pilot in New Zealand, will be taken to cabinet after lobbying from the farming and horticulture sectors.

Senator Evans said the scheme would help stabilise economies in the South Pacific and tackle seasonal labour shortages, such as in fruit picking.

Unions are also at loggerheads over the scheme. The ACTU backed the need for greater "labour market mobility" from the Asia-Pacific region at the recent 2020 Summit, and the Australian Workers Union has given "in-principle support".

But Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union national secretary John Sutton recently said guest workers would lead to the "Mexicanisation" of the country's job market.

"The large movement of guest workers from the Asia-Pacific to our small labour market would have profound effects on the ability of governments or unions to uphold standards," he said.

Duncan Kerr, the parliamentary secretary for Pacific Island affairs, told The Age that any scheme would ensure employers adhered to normal wages and conditions and identified areas of legitimate demand.