Foreign workers picking up slack
DEBATE over cashless welfare cards has raised a salient question – why are so many Far North Queensland jobs being filled by foreign backpackers?
Senator Ian Macdonald made the point as Greens in the Upper House tried to block the expansion of trials into the Centrelink payment system.
“The only people I run into at service stations, at stores out in the middle of nowhere, at pubs around various towns, are Irish or English or German backpackers,” he said.
“It seems very easy for these foreign backpackers to get work.
“Admittedly, it’s in places like Normanton, Croydon, on the way to the Cape.
“Plenty of work there but all being filled by foreign backpackers because, apparently, Australians don’t want those jobs.”
Sen Macdonald suggested hard graft was the best way out of poverty.
“I didn’t have parents who could send me to private schools or universities,” he said.
“I’ve got wherever I’ve got through hard work.”
The controversial cashless welfare card has been rolled out in parts of South Australia and Western Australia with the government pushing to expand trials into more areas.
The system allocates up to 80 per cent of a person’s Centhree-year-old trelink allowance to a debit card which can only be used for essential items.
Hope Vale in Far North Queensland and the troubled Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek had previously been raised as potential areas for expansion.
Now the National Party wants the trial spread nationwide.
Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim said the plan was mendacious, cruel and deeply unnecessary.
“So much of this legislation is objectionable, but the idea that this is a trial is perhaps the greatest untruth embedded in this Bill,” he said.
“The Liberals, with little to no opposition, want to expand this card to every person on a social support payment.
“Make no mistake, that is what is at stake here.”
Sen Macdonald rejected the idea the card was an affront to human rights.
“This proposal for this cashless credit card is not taking away anything,” he said.
“It’s not reducing the value of the contribution that the taxpayers are giving to people that need assistance and need welfare.
“It’s just that a certain proportion of it can only be spent on necessities of life.
“I cannot understand why anyone objects to it.”
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READING has always been central to Arline Coppin’s parenting philosophy.
Now the Gordonvale grandma is using the same philosophy to bond with her Ethan Kuhnel.
Ms Coppin and Ethan bonded over a pirate-themed grandparents day at Earlville Library yesterday as part of Cairns Regional Council’s Seniors Week celebrations.
“I go to the library extremely grandson, frequently, and my son-in-law brings Ethan to the library every Thursday,” she said.
“When I found out it was grandparents day I knew I had to spend it with Ethan.”
She said she couldn’t imagine raising her children without the magic of books.
“All of my kids read a lot when they were children. When they were babies they couldn’t look up at me without seeing me holding a book.
“They all went on to do at least one university degree each, and that was without any pressure from me. ”