Daunting times for Blaxland jobless – THE CENSUS: [2 All-round First Edition]
John Stapleton, Sanna Trad. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 26 Oct 2007: 10.
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Abstract
“You get a lot of people coming in over the week looking for any work: washing dishes, working in the kitchen,” Mr [Charles Obeid] said.
“We take their phone numbers but we really can’t offer them much,” he said. “Some of them seem quite desperate.”
“Aussie kids are losing out to people from overseas,” Mr [Michael Hatton] said. “The high unemployment figures are an expression of all the people left behind because there is not a concerted policy for bringing them into play and giving them hope of a bright future in work.”
Full Text
THE revelation that theirs is one of two electorates in Australia with double-digit unemployment comes as no surprise to the people in Paul Keating’s old electorate of Blaxland.
This once quiet area of western Sydney has been transformed since 1969, when Mr Keating first held the seat, and is now perceived as the living expression of his dream of a multi-cultural Australia.
The shopping centres teem with kebab shops, Asian restaurants and Samoan dance studios.
Charles Obeid, owner of the Al-Aseel Lebanese restaurant in Greenacre, in the heart of the electorate, knocks back at least one person looking for work every day.
“You get a lot of people coming in over the week looking for any work: washing dishes, working in the kitchen,” Mr Obeid said.
“There are a lot of mothers looking for part-time work while the kids are at school.”
Mr Obeid said he employed about 20 people and had no trouble filling vacancies.
“We take their phone numbers but we really can’t offer them much,” he said. “Some of them seem quite desperate.”
Kirrilee Trist, a spokeswoman for the Salvation Army‘s Employment Plus program, said the electorate had a large number of immigrants and many disadvantaged people, single parents and people with disabilities.
She said the lack of public transport in western Sydney was a significant obstacle because people coming from poor financial circumstances could not get to work.
The Labor candidate in the safe Labor seat, Jason Clare, said the Howard Government’s slashing of the Adult Migrant Education Service had had a significant effect on the electorate because of the large number of migrants in Blaxland who needed to learn English for work.
Retiring member Michael Hatton said many of the people in the area were unskilled and it was these sorts of people who had been most badly affected by theHoward Government’s policy of plugging skills gaps by bringing in hundreds of thousands of people on 457 visas.
“Aussie kids are losing out to people from overseas,” Mr Hatton said. “The high unemployment figures are an expression of all the people left behind because there is not a concerted policy for bringing them into play and giving them hope of a bright future in work.”