quote:

http://www.afr.com/news/68-short-acoss-changes-tune-on-interns-after-union-backlash-20160505-gonr90
The nation's peak welfare body has shifted ground on the Turnbull Government's internship scheme, calling for young job seekers to be paid up to an extra $68 a week for participating in the program.

The call by the Australian Council of Social Services came after the body was privately criticised by unions and other welfare groups for its strong initial support for the federal budget initiative.

On Tuesday night, after the budget was handed down, ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the body was "very pleased to see the new approach to helping young people into paid work".

She said the Coalition's scheme provided an opportunity for young people to get work experience in real jobs with a wage subsidy, something we have urged for some time and should be used more widely."

In a subsequent statement to The Australian Financial Review, Dr Goldie said young jobseekers participating in the internship program should be paid at least equal to the national minimum wage.

Unions and the Labor Party in recent days have attacked the scheme for not paying jobseekers the minimum wage.

A single childless job seeker on Newstart currently receives $527.60 per fortnight. If the recipient was engaged on an internship for 25 hours a week, he would get an extra $4 an hour, receiving $363.80 per week.

Given the minimum wage is $17.29 per hour, a business would save $432.25 if the job seeker was employed as an intern for 25 hours a week rather than as a minimum wage employee. Interns would receive $68.45 per week below the minimum wage and not receive sick leave, superannuation and penalty rates.

Dr Goldie said "young people in the internships should receive at least the equivalent of the minimum hourly wage or a training wage where appropriate training is provided".

"It's also essential that health and safety protections are in place, that interns are mentored and have the opportunity to raise complaints of exploitation, that existing workers are not displaced, and that employers can't 'churn' people through internships without offering them jobs," she said.

"A key goal of employment programs is to give opportunities to people who would otherwise be unemployed for a long time.

"If a long-term unemployed young person gets a job as a result of being offered the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities, that's good for them, good for society, and it also strengthens jobs growth in the long run. On the other hand, work for the dole is a punishment, not a opportunity."

"The program should be seen as a complement to apprenticeships not a replacement for them."

Dr Goldie reiterated that ACOSS welcomed the shift away from the "compulsory and ineffective work for the dole program towards real work experience and wage subsidies for people at risk of prolonged unemployment, but warns that protections are needed to ensure young people are not exploited in the proposed internships".

"The scheme should be targeted towards people who are long term unemployed and make a real difference to their job prospects," she said.

On Thursday night, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash backed away from insisting employers would have to prove they had a "real vacancy" before being able to access the Coalition's new internship scheme.

Senator Cash issued a statement after previously supportive business groups said the vacancy requirement would make them less likely to use the program.

Rather than produce upfront evidence of a 'real vacancy', Senator Cash's statement said a business would only have "to demonstrate that there is a real prospect of ongoing employment should the job seeker be deemed suitable."

"The guidelines of the programme are currently being developed," she said.

"These guidelines consistent with other similar programmes will ensure protections against displacement of paid employees and prevention of churn of interns through a workplace where job outcomes are not realised."

Senator Cash issued the statement after The Australian Financial Review reported industry concerns about the vacancy requirement.

open24hours posted:

quote:

A group of asylum seekers whose wooden boat made it to within 500 metres of the Cocos Islands have been flown back to Sri Lanka in the cover of night, in a highly-secretive operation.
The small boat was intercepted close to the Indian Ocean archipelago, about halfway between Australia and Sri Lanka, in rough weather on Monday morning.
Then, local eyewitnesses said, it was carrying an estimated 12 asylum seekers.

But on Friday morning another local witness, who asked not to be named, said there were more than 12 asylum seekers on board, and said the group included women and children - including at least one infant.
He said the asylum seekers were transferred from the Ocean Protector customs vessel on to a smaller boat, before being taken to West Island, where they were loaded onto a bus.
Australian officials covered up all the windows, in an attempt to shield what was happening from a gathering group of locals.
But at least one local photographer was able to capture what transpired. It's understood he is negotiating to sell his photographs.

It is understood to be the first boat in about two years to make it so close to the Cocos Islands, although the government has turned back at least one other boat in the past year.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton refused to say whether the chartered airbus was carrying asylum seekers, reported the ABC.
His office did not return calls on Friday morning but flight records show a plane with registration identical to the plane photographed by locals on the Cocos Islands' airport departed Cocos Island for Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, overnight.
The asylum route to the Cocos Islands opened up in earnest in 2012, when Sri Lanka's senior envoy in Canberra confirmed his government recently stopped a boat carrying more than 110 people departing for Australia via the Indian Ocean.

Before this, people-smuggling syndicates had not historically targeted Cocos Islands, preferring to send boats to Australian territory closer to Indonesia – either Christmas Island, south of Java, or Ashmore Reef off West Timor.
The distance between Ashmore Reef and the Cocos Islands is more than 4000 kilometres, a massive expanse to patrol.

quote:

The Immigration Department says it "regrets" its decision to remove nine Save the Children workers from Nauru in 2014 and has offered compensation in a confidential financial settlement.

More to come.

quote:

The federal government has paid compensation to a charity group it wrongly accused of trying to embarrass the former Abbott administration by encouraging asylum seekers at Nauru to harm themselves, conceding it had "no reason" to cast doubt on the group's reputation.

However it has failed to apologise to the organisation, Save the Children Australia, whose staff have suffered mental illness, unemployment and travel bans following the incident, during which they were forcibly deported by armed guards.

The admissions cast doubt on the veracity of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's claims this week that refugee advocates, rather than his government's policies, had encouraged refugees at Nauru to self-harm after two refugees set themselves on fire in separate incidents – one fatally.
Mr Dutton provided no evidence of those allegations, saying only they were based on "advice", "intelligence" and a social media analysis.
In a statement on Friday the Department of Immigration and Border Protection announced it had reached a confidential financial settlement with Save The Children over allegations made by former immigration minister Scott Morrison in October 2014.

He accused Save The Children staff of orchestrating detainee protest activity, coaching detainees to self-harm, campaigning to cast doubt on the legitimacy of offshore detention and misusing and improperly disclosing sensitive and confidential information.

Mr Morrison ordered that 10 staff members, whose organisation protects child rights, to be taken off Nauru. The staff were given no details, and were accompanied by armed Nauruan police to the airport. Nine were removed because one had already left the island.

The workers were cleared by the federal police, an inquiry by former integrity commissioner Philip Moss and a review commissioned by the federal government by lawyer and immigration expert Christopher Doogan.
The department on Friday conceded it did not provide Save The Children Australia with detailed reasons for the removal, and had "no reason to cause doubt to be cast on SCA's reputation".
It recognised that the organisation had "suffered detriment for which … the payment of money cannot be adequate compensation".

"In this regard the department regrets the way in which … [the allegations] may have led other NGOs and members of the public to question the integrity of SCA as a provider of government services or, to the extent that it may be relevant, as a child rights organisation."

Save The Children no longer holds the contract for providing child welfare services at Nauru.

Mr Dutton on Tuesday blamed refugee advocates for a spate of horrifying self-harm incidents on Nauru that included a young Somali woman setting herself alight on Monday. She remains in a critical condition in a Brisbane hospital.

In an earlier incident a 23-year-old Iranian man, Omid Masoumali, also set himself on fire and later died.
Mr Dutton expressed anger at advocates and others "who are encouraging some of these people to behave in a certain way, believing that that pressure exerted on the Australian government will see a change in our policy in relation to our border protection measures".

"These behaviours have intensified in recent times and as we see, they have turned to extreme acts with terrible consequences," Mr Dutton said.
"Advocates who proclaim to represent and support the interests of refugees and asylum seekers must frankly hear a clear message ... their activities and these behaviours must end."

Asked what evidence he was relying on to make the claims, Mr Dutton referred to "a lot of advice that we receive, intelligence we receive, contact between the staff and those people on Nauru. There is a lot of publicly available information in relation to some of the social media messaging".

Zenithe posted:

knowing fully well that the government doesn't give a gently caress, isn't it straight up illegal to return asylum seekers to their place of alleged persecution without checking the eligibility?

Starshark posted:

I'm going to kill this government.

Zenithe posted:

knowing fully well that the government doesn't give a gently caress, isn't it straight up illegal to return asylum seekers to their place of alleged persecution without checking the eligibility?

hooman posted:

Preventing refoulment is exactly the point of the refugee convention. It's what happened to Jewish people fleeing Nazi Germany and here we are in 2016 refouling the gently caress out of people without processing.

Awesome.

wayne curr posted:

SPILLS ON

Cartoon posted:

They'll say they checked and it was all A Okay. Also Dutton was already spouting off about how this wasn't a boat arrival. There it is mate, a loving boat arriving. What the gently caress is hard to understand here? Apparently there are 'operational' reasons why this isn't a complete pack of lies.

katlington posted:

Knowing theyre about to pay compensation from the last time the government slandered refugee advocates, dutton does it again.

Serrath posted:

British subjects can vote?

E: I didn't know there was only a week left, thanks for posting this, I'm enrolling now

quote:

The Federal Government says it is yet to arrange workers compensation for those participating in its new youth unemployment plan, but will provide protection by the time the program starts next year.

Budget Estimates has heard the Commonwealth's workers compensation scheme will not cover the Youth Employment Package, unveiled in the Federal Budget.

But Federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said while it was a decision for the Federal Government, she anticipated participants in the program would be protected by the time it starts in April 2017.

Anidav posted:

By the way, here's the LNP's first online ad for the election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFNiLcl-5Ss

PaletteSwappedNinja posted:

Where is an intern going to find the money to sue anyone?

quote:

er much-anthologised story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, the great novelist Ursula le Guin describes what seems at first to be an almost idyllic land.

The people of Omelas live by the sea, where they enjoy “a boundless and generous contentment” in a wealthy and prosperous society. There’s just one catch. Underneath a public building in Omelas sits a whimpering child, permanently imprisoned in a tiny room and deprived of all comfort and pleasure.

Self-immolation: desperate protests against Australia's detention regime
Everyone in Omelas knows that the child’s there. But they also know that “their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery.”

Le Guin explains that, when young people in Omelas learn of the child, they’re invariably sickened by what’s been done to it.

But the elders of the city explain the necessity.

If the child were brought up into the sunlight out of that vile place, if it were cleaned and fed and comforted, that would be a good thing, indeed; but if it were done, in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed. Those are the terms. To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed. The terms are strict and absolute; there may not even be a kind word spoken to the child.

And, by and large, the citizens of Omelas come to perceive “the terrible justice of reality, and to accept it.”

...

quote:

Govt signs deal to build ships in Spain https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/31536788/govt-signs-deal-to-build-ships-in-spain/

The government has quietly signed a contract to build new navy supply ships in Spain, in a deal with $130 million worth of Australian content but not one job for an Australian shipyard worker.

The decision comes as further workers at the ASC shipyard in Adelaide face being laid off as work on air warfare destroyers winds up.

Mr Xenophon said it was “shocking news” to discover the contract worth $800m will only include $130m of Australian content and no Australian shipbuilders.

Asked whether at least Australian steel would be used in the build, Mr Xenophon told a bemused Leon Byner that the Spanish shipbuilder had simply been given the “contact details” of Australian steelmakers.

“You’re telling me that the best they can do for local procurement is give out a phone number? Are you joking?” asked Leon.

“This is no joking matter,” replied Mr Xenophon.

“I was actually shocked. We were all quite stunned.”

Ferremit posted:

Just what I wanted to hear during my work day, Gerry Harvey busy slobbering down the liberal dick about how good the instant tax write off for small business has been for Harvey Norman sales...

Doc Holliday posted:

The trouble with Tamils seeking protection is that the Australian Government refuses to concede that there is so much as an issue in Sri Lanka who are good friends of ours. The civil war is over; everyone is happy now...
I could be mistaken but we tend to not even bother detaining them for a period and just return these people as quickly as possible