Issue No 89 | 23 March 2001 | |
NewsWorking Visas: Ruddock Sells Dump to Abbott
Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock has shifted blame for the failure to ensure guest workers receive their legal entitlements to his Cabinet colleague, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott.
Ruddock passed the buck in a letter to Labor Council in response to concerns at the rates the Regent Hotel was paying foreign workers employed as part of a 'training program'. In the letter, Ruddock denies his department is responsible for ensuring working visas comply with Australian labour law, shunting it off to Abbott's Department of Employment, Workplace relations and Small Business, "DEWRSB has responsibility for Federal industrial relations laws," Ruddock says. "Myb de[partment undertakes routine targeted monitoring of employers to ensure that employers honour their sponsorship obligations. "Allegations of this type are received from time to time and my department works cooperatively with union and other agencies to investigate such complaints." Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says that given evidence in a rise of exploitation of guest workers, Ruddock needs to do more to ensure the integrity of the working visa system. "It's not good enough to pass the buck to another government department," Costa says. "The Minister for Immigration is responsible for working visas and the buck stops with him." "If Tony Abbott's Department is failing, that's Phillip Ruddock's problem." Questions on Notice Meanwhile, Ruddock faces a raft of questions relating to the spread of working visas in the hospitality industry placed on notice by Tasmanian Senator Kerry O'Brien. They include the following:
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Interview: Paddy Takes the Helm Irish, internationalist, republican, socialist & seafarer - Paddy Crumlin intends taking the old traditions of the labour left into the 21st century, the community and cyberspace. Unions: Breaking the Mould Mark Hearn looks at how women union delegates are helping to change the culture in the traditionally male bastion of glassworking. Legal: Washing Their Hands Mark Morey outlines how Liberal neglect of the working visa system has led to exploitation of guest workers. International: Violence Betrays Shangri-La Shangri-La hotel union members carrying a coffin marked Robert Kuok have been assaulted and beaten by police in Jakarta. Economics: Corporations: Different Than You and Me Corporations are fundamentally different than you and me. That's a simple truth that Big Business leaders desperately hope the public will not perceive. History: The Steel Octopus Be prepared for a flood of Nostalgia from the media about the �Big Australian�, as it prepares to flee our shores and finally internationalise its digging operations. Workers won�t forget BHP�s less than worker friendly past and present (and no doubt it�s future). Review: Mean Nation John Allen charts the fall and fall of philanthropy in Australian society. Satire: Ryan 'A Big Wake-Up Call For Me': Beazley The narrow victory to Labor in the Ryan by-election has delivered a big slap in the face to Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley.
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