Sign of discontent
A BILLBOARD south of Townsville has sparked outrage among the backpacking community in North Queensland.
The notice situated alongside the Bruce Highway at Alligator Creek says “Jobs for local tradies not backpackers. Turnbull created the problem and Palaszczuk needs to fix it.”
A North Queensland backpacker who wished to remain anonymous said he was working on a solar farm in the Burdekin.
“The sign makes me feel as if I’m intruding where I’m not wanted,” he said.
The billboard is authorised by the Electrical Trades Union and was installed in the past week.
ETU organiser for North Queensland Wal Giordani said it was erected in response to local union members struggling to gain employment on solar farms.
“We’ve had our members in the greater North Queensland region come to us in regards to the use of backpackers on solar farms,” Mr Giordani said. “We believe the work on these solar farms is licensed electrical work that should be done by licensed electrical tradesmen.”
Mr Giordani said the ETU has been continually raising the issue with the state government for the past 12 months but nothing has been done to address the issue.
“The billboards put it back on to the state government,” he said. “This industry needs to be regulated and we need to get the cowboys out.”
The ETU will not take down the billboard until the issue is addressed.
“It will be there as long as it takes to get the state government ensuring that this sort of behaviour no longer occurs and licensed electrical people are installing these solar farms.
It comes just weeks after a discriminatory poster taped to a shop window in Ayr claimed travellers were not welcome in the North Queensland town.
The profanity- laden flyer read: “Unless you are of Northern European descent, speak English and you are not a thot ( slang for “that ho over there”) or degenerate, f*** off, because you are not welcome here”.