Whose side are we on, asks union boss, as ALP approves migrant workforce for Gina Rinehart

UNIONS have accused the Gillard government of siding with the world's richest woman over struggling workers after Gina Rinehart was given the green light to import 1700 foreigners for her Roy Hill iron ore project.

The heads of the nation's major mining unions lashed Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's decision to approve an enterprise migration agreement for the West Australian project, saying the company had failed to advertise a single job.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes said the decision was “sheer lunacy” and an “early Christmas present” for Ms Rinehart, whom the government has previously claimed was a threat to democracy. “I though we were actually attacking these guys at the moment,” he said.

“Whose side are we on? This is a big win for Gina Rinehart, it's a big win for Clive Palmer, it's a big win for (Andrew) Twiggy Forrest, and it's a massive kick in the guts to those 130,000 workers in the manufacturing industry who have lost their jobs since 2008.

“For the life of me I can't understand why this decision was made in the current climate. ”(Mr Howes later retracted his criticism of the Fortescue Metals Group, and instead praised Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest's commitment to indigenous jobs in the resources sector.)

It is the first time the government has approved an enterprise migration agreement, although several other mining companies are seeking to strike similar deals.

The move came as the government announced visa applications would be fast-tracked for wealthy business people who were prepared to invest at least $5 million in Australia.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said it was “reprehensible” that Australians were being denied an opportunity to work on the project at a time when skilled workers were being laid off across the manufacturing industry.

“We are calling on the Prime Minister to immediately intervene to ensure that before any workers are being brought in under the 457 visa program, that there has been appropriate measures in place to ensure that the local market has been tested, that there is a requirement on Gina Rinehart and these mining companies to at least advertise to see if there is interest from local workers,” Mr Oliver said.

He said he was “perplexed” at the decision, given the government's ongoing campaign against rich vested interests.

Enterprise migration agreements allow companies to bring in low-skilled workers that would not normally be granted temporary work visas, if they can demonstrate “a genuine need that cannot be met from the Australian labour market”.

Mr Bowen said the signing of the first EMA was an important development in helping to meet critical skills shortages in the resources sector.

“The government's first priority is always ensuring jobs for Australian workers, but there is a need for temporary workers to help keep our economy strong,” Mr Bowen said.

“With more than 8000 workers required during the construction phase of the Roy Hill project, there simply aren't enough people in the local workforce to get the job done.”

Special Minister of State Gary Gray said unhappy unions would have to put up with the enterprise migration agreements because the decision has been made.

He said the EMAs were a mechanism to get up major projects that were significant to the national economy in time to meet market demand, he said.

“If we were to sit back ... the risk is that we will miss that market and we will end up in future generations with lots of rocks that no-one wants,” Mr Gray told a business panel discussion in Perth.

“The unions and other stakeholders have had their say and the government has made its call - end of story.”

Mining magnate Clive Palmer said it was important to support nationally significant projects with expected lives of 30 to 40 years because benefits would flow through to improve the nation's standard of living.

“If we don't do something like this, we won't have any jobs at all,” Mr Palmer said.

“We need to get on with the job. We've got to get rid of all this bloody rubbish that stops us competing.”

As part of the agreement, Roy Hill, in the Pilbara, would provide up to 2000 training places for Australian workers, including 200 apprentices and 100 indigenous Australians.

But Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Paul Bastian said the company had failed to seek local workers for the project.

He said the government had turned the Department of Immigration into a labour hire agency for employers.

The approval of the agreement came as manufacturing union bosses met with Julia Gillard in Canberra to hammer out a plan to prevent mass layoffs in the sector.

More than 340 workers at NSW's Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter were told they would lose their jobs this week, while Qantas laid off 630 workers in Victoria.

Mr Howes said workers losing their jobs in manufacturing could fill the job needs of the resources sector.

The government has been waging a campaign against Ms Rinehart and other mining magnates as it moves to “spread the benefits of the boom” by channelling the proceeds of its mining tax to voter handouts.

In his controversial piece in The Monthly, published in March, Mr Swan said Labor would place workers ahead of “vested interests” such as Ms Rinehart.

“Politicians have a choice: between exploiting divisions by promoting fear and appealing to the sense of fairness and decency that is the foundation of our middle-class society; between standing up for workers and kneeling down at the feet of the Gina Rineharts and the Clive Palmers.”

Source: Australian