These days, the economy is run for the benefit of business, not the rest of us.

Picture below is from here.

More shocks with the reporting of some epic results following on the easing of work rights and obligations - this time connected to the 457 visas under which workers are sponsored to work in Australia by employers.  This time it is the 'enlightened' non-feminist firm Thiess which is a subsidiary/partner of its 'enlightened' non-feminist corporate colleague Leightons.  Please note that Leighton Holdings is now known as the CIMIC Group. Those familiar with the old Leightons Holding board will remember year after year of all male boards - but now they have moved on to the token female.  BTW, please note Miss Eagle does not agree with 'the goal' supported by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) of 30% of boards to be female. 

The Sex Discrimination Act has been in place since 1984.  Introduction of such legislation was part of Australia's obligation when ratifying the United Nations' Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  More than 30 years has gone by and corporations are only being pressed for 30% female representation!  But then WGEA - and its predecessors with other nomenclature - has always been a featherduster organisation.  And look where its so-called "carrot and stick" approach has got women.

In 2010 the then EOWA awarded Thiess an EOWA Award as an employer of choice for women.  This was at the time when there were all sorts of shenaningans going on at the site of the Wonthaggi desalination plant construction.  As for women lauding Thiess .... who? Professional women? Women further down the food chain?  With such undemanding standards, will Thiess Services and CIMIC Group end up employers of choice for women?  I don't think there is an award for providing sound workplace practices for migrant workers.  Clearly, if there was an award, I would expect Thiess Services to find themselves ineligible.  I think we could rely on the Electrical Trades Union to see to that. 

Complaints have been around for a long, long time.  Please see these listed in 2013. 

If you want too tickle your funny bone with a sardonic laugh or three, please read this from April last year. Note the panel for this review - a review which had its mind made up long before it began.  It had its goal clearly in view.  Now we are seeing the results of it.

Please note the ministerial responsibility in the review - it is that well known wife of fish, Senator Michaelia Cash.  These days she is the Assistant Minister for Border Protection (the portfolio for being cruel to refugees and asylum seekers, particularly women and their children) and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women. Australia does not have a Minister who only handles the portfolio of women's affairs because of its significance. And, of course, a woman cannot be expected to handle such a portfolio responsibly.  It is essential that the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott - who day-by-day has his credibility leaking as badly as a run down people-smuggling boat - gives significance to the portfolio.  Seems to be that gone are the days when significant women handled this portfolio with great success and benefit to those whom the portfolio served.

What we have found aired to us in recent weeks is that large numbers of men and women in the Australian workforce - particularly if they come from overseas on a 417 working holiday visa or a 457 employer sponsored visa - are treated shoddily.  The Liberal-National Parties currently in government in Australia, together with their corporate mates, are trashing Australia's reputation for fairness and equity.  Australia is becoming yet another rip-off station on the international circuit.

Such practices disadvantage ordinary Australians. How?

1. Can we really trust employers, as a group,  if they say they cannot fill their jobs with Australian employees?  Not all employers using 417s and 457s are bad employers.  However, when major corporations act like Thiess they bring everyone into disrepute.

2.  The enthusiasm with which the Abbott Government and their corporate cronies have adopted the concept - or some of the concept - of overseas working visas is part of an overall objective of driving down wages in Australia, particularly for unskilled or semi-skilled work.  And remember we don't yet know what Australia has signed up to in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. 

3. Currently, Australian government agencies are not working for all Australians.  As a peep into the WGEA shows, no pressure is being brought to bear on recalcitrant employers and yet, as we saw in last year's Budget, the Abbott Government is prepared to place enormous financial and family pressures on Australian workers. 

4. Is Australia producing a new breed of refugees as people flee from us because of the evil and gross indecency of many employment practices in this country?

As you can see below, Networkers, I have included a reading list.  It's a bit of a mixed bag - but it will give you an idea of some of the stuff that is around and a lot of this stuff will have been inserted in the minds of politicians by professional lobbyists.  The last on the list is from one of my favourite economic commentators, Ross Gittins. I conclude this article with A Taste of Gittins from his article which I have included below:

To me the main drawback is not so much that employers may not try hard enough to find local workers to fill jobs, or that the availability of this external supply may limit to some extent the rise in skilled wages, but that it reduces employers' incentive go to the bother of training young workers. 

Still, we mustn't forget that, these days, 

the economy is run for the benefit of business, not the rest of us.

Further reading

Visa holders and migrant workers - workplace rights and entitlements

Compete to prosper

The evidence is tacking up that Australians will earn lower wages in the years ahead

Australian oil and gas workers earning less which may give industry competitive edge

Minimum Wage Review 2014 - Australian Retailers Assocation submission

Immigration to Australia

How Australia's supply of labour is changing

Hooray! Australia is now on a par with Saudi Arabia for forced returns of migrants. C'mon let's celebrate!

At left: An Ethiopian worker argues with a member of the Saudi security forces as he waits with his countrymen to be repatriated in Manfouha, southern Riyadh (Reuters).  Picture from International Business Times

I wonder if Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison are offering themselves a toast of some bubbly stuff.  They have something to celebrate.  They have placed Australia - with their tow backs and life-boat forced aboards - on a par with that great bastion of human rights, Saudi Arabia.



The material below comes from the Editor's Note in the January 17, 2014 Newsletter of the Migration Policy Institute - Migration Information Source.  

Editor's Note

Saudia Arabia's campaign to remove irregular migrants, which has resulted in nearly 1 million people leaving the country since last year, continues. More than 2,000 Somali migrants were repatriated to Mogadishu earlier this week.

Ethiopia, Yemen, and Somalia are among the countries struggling to absorb the returnees. The International Organization for Migration, which has been providing emergency medical assistance, food, and reintegration allowances to some of the irregular migrants, estimated earlier this month that more than 151,000 Ethiopians have been returned from Saudi Arabia. Yemeni officials estimate 300,000 to 400,000 Yemenis were expelled from Saudi Arabia last year, with thousands dropped off in a single day at a crossing along the countries' shared border. Saudi Arabia also has removed large numbers of migrant workers from Egypt, India, Sudan, and other countries.

The returns are imposing a double strain on the economies of the migrants' countries of origin. In addition to facing the return of these workers and the need to integrate them into labor markets, the countries now must do without the remittances that they sent home. Saudi Arabia is the world's third-largest source of remittances, behind the United States and Russian Federation, with official outflows estimated at $29.4 billion in 2012. By some estimates, the crackdown could result in a one-quarter reduction in remittances from Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi campaign, which has drawn reports of abuses against migrants and also resulted in a violent clash, is part of a broader effort to create new job openings for Saudi nationals and to remake the country's labor market; it is also viewed as an effort to stave off the unrest that has hit elsewhere in the Middle East. The country's population of 29.2 million included about 9 million non-Saudis in 2012.

The crackdown came on the heels of a 2013 amnesty during which 4 million workers rectified visa infringements and obtained work permits, and nearly 1 million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis, and others left the country. (The Indian government estimates more than 141,000 of its nationals took advantage of the Saudi amnesty.) When the amnesty, declared in March 2013, ended that November, the removals campaign began with workplace raids and other enforcement operations.

While the Saudi government reports the campaign has created greater employment opportunities for Saudi nationals, providing jobs to date for more than 254,000 Saudis, there are suggestions that the economic impact on certain sectors in the kingdom may not be entirely positive, at least in the near term.

The Migration Information Source team
source@migrationpolicy.org

Miss Eagle's Christmas Decorations - 2013

A possible plan: Dehumanisation, stigmatisation and then the gas ovens? A possible plan: a document similar to the Barmen Declaration?

Where is this saga going to end? 

With refugees being put in gas ovens? 

Picture from here

And, if anyone thinks this comment is extreme, I ask - 

Do you not consider the response of 

Tony Abbott & his government extreme? 

Hitler didn't go immediately to his gas oven policy on coming to power in 1933. First he did what Abbott & Co are doing. Hitler made the Jews disreputable, dehumanised, non-citizens. Just like Abbott & Morrison and all those who support them and stand by them are doing to those who seek asylum and refuge in Australia. 

In 1934, in response to Hitler (and remember that at this stage there were those of power and influence in Britain who thought Hitler was great), some Christians got together and wrote the Barmen Declaration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmen_Declaration 

The declaration is printed below.  

These German Christians got it right. 

Is it about time Christians in Australia got together 

and did something similar?

Abbott sacks asylum seeker health advisers

www.theage.com.au

The Abbott government has disbanded a key group that provided advice on the health of asylum seekers in detention, as research reveals psychiatric problems - such as self-harm - are the most common reasons for the large number of detainee visits to hospital emergency departments.

See also:

The importance of the Barmen Theological Declration

Synod of Barmen

Barth and Bonheoffer and Barmen

Karl Barth on the Barmen Synod
Karl Barth on the Confessing Church
Emergency Covenant of Pastors

Theological Declaration of Barmen

Written by Karl Barth and the confessing church in Nazi Germany 

in response to Hitler's national church.

 Its central doctrines concern the sin of idolatry and the lordship of Christ

I. An Appeal to the Evangelical Congregations and Christians in Germany

8.01 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church met in Barmen, May 29-31, 1934. Here representatives from all the German Confessional Churches met with one accord in a confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, apostolic Church. In fidelity to their Confession of Faith, members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches sought a common message for the need and temptation of the Church in our day. With gratitude to God they are convinced that they have been given a common word to utter. It was not their intention to found a new Church or to form a union. For nothing was farther from their minds than the abolition of the confessional status of our Churches. Their intention was, rather, to withstand in faith and unanimity the destruction of the Confession of Faith, and thus of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In opposition to attempts to establish the unity of the German Evangelical Church by means of false doctrine, by the use of force and insincere practices, the Confessional Synod insists that the unity of the Evangelical Churches in Germany can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed.

8.02 Therefore the Confessional Synod calls upon the congregations to range themselves behind it in prayer, and steadfastly to gather around those pastors and teachers who are loyal to the Confessions.

8.03 Be not deceived by loose talk, as if we meant to oppose the unity of the German nation! Do not listen to the seducers who pervert our intentions, as if we wanted to break up the unity of the German Evangelical Church or to forsake the Confessions of the Fathers!

8.04 Try the spirits whether they are of God! Prove also the words of the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church to see whether they agree with Holy Scripture and with the Confessions of the Fathers. If you find that we are speaking contrary to Scripture, then do not listen to us! But if you find that we are taking our stand upon Scripture, then let no fear or temptation keep you from treading with us the path of faith and obedience to the Word of God, in order that God's people be of one mind upon earth and that we in faith experience what he himself has said: "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Therefore, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

---

II. Theological Declaration Concerning the Present Situation of the German Evangelical Church

8.05 According to the opening words of its constitution of July 11, 1933, the German Evangelical Church is a federation of Confessional Churches that grew out of the Reformation and that enjoy equal rights. The theological basis for the unification of these Churches is laid down in Article 1 and Article 2(1) of the constitution of the German Evangelical Church that was recognized by the Reich Government on July 14, 1933:

• Article 1. The inviolable foundation of the German Evangelical Church is the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is attested for us in Holy Scripture and brought to light again in the Confessions of the Reformation. The full powers that the Church needs for its mission are hereby determined and limited.
• Article 2 (1). The German Evangelical Church is divided into member Churches Landeskirchen).

8.06 We, the representatives of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches, of free synods, Church assemblies, and parish organizations united in the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church, declare that we stand together on the ground of the German Evangelical Church as a federation of German Confessional Churches. We are bound together by the confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

8.07 We publicly declare before all evangelical Churches in Germany that what they hold in common in this Confession is grievously imperilled, and with it the unity of the German Evangelical Church. It is threatened by the teaching methods and actions of the ruling Church party of the "German Christians" and of the Church administration carried on by them. These have become more and more apparent during the first year of the existence of the German Evangelical Church. This threat consists in the fact that the theological basis, in which the German Evangelical Church is united, has been continually and systematically thwarted and rendered ineffective by alien principles, on the part of the leaders and spokesmen of the "German Christians" as well as on the part of the Church administration. When these principles are held to be valid, then, according to all the Confessions in force among us, the Church ceases to be the Church and th German Evangelical Church, as a federation of Confessional Churches, becomes intrinsically impossible.

8.08 As members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches we may and must speak with one voice in this matter today. Precisely because we want to be and to remain faithful to our various Confessions, we may not keep silent, since we believe that we have been given a common message to utter in a time of common need and temptation. We commend to God what this may mean for the intrrelations of the Confessional Churches.

8.09 In view of the errors of the "German Christians" of the present Reich Church government which are devastating the Church and also therefore breaking up the unity of the German Evangelical Church, we confess the following evangelical truths:

8.10 - 1. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." (John 14.6). "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. . . . I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved." (John 10:1, 9.)

8.11 Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. 

8.12 We reiect the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God's revelation.

8.13 - 2. "Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30.)

8.14 As Jesus Christ is God's assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, in the same way and with the same seriousness he is also God's mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures. 

8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords--areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.

8.16 - 3. "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body [is] joined and knit together." (Eph. 4:15,16.)

8.17 The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.

8.18 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.

8.19 - 4. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men excercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your srvant." (Matt. 20:25,26.)

8.20 The various offices in the Church do not establish a dominion of some over the others; on the contrary, they are for the exercise of the ministry entrusted to and enjoined upon the whole congregation.

8.21 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, apart from this ministry, could and were permitted to give itself, or allow to be given to it, special leaders vested with ruling powers.

8.22 - 5. "Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1 Peter 2:17.)
Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. [It fulfills this task] by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the Kingdom of God, God's commandment and righteousness, and thereby the responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word by which God upholds all things.

8.23 We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its special commision, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church's vocation as well.

8.24 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State.

8.25 - 6. "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matt. 28:20.) "The word of God is not fettered." (2 Tim. 2:9.)

8.26 The Church's commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ's stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and sacrament.

8.27 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.

8.28 The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church declares that it sees in the acknowledgment of these truths and in the rejection of these errors the indispensable theological basis of the German Evangelical Church as a federation of Confessional Churches. It invites all who are able to accept its declaration to be mindful of these theological principles in their decisions in Church politics. It entreats all whom it concerns to return to the unity of faith, love, and hope.

---

From: The Church's Confession Under Hitler by Arthur C. Cochrane. 
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962, pp. 237-242.

CHRISTMAS BEHIND THE WIRE IN DETENTION - IN AUSTRALIA OF ALL PLACES!

Many asylum seekers are spending their 5th year or more

imprisoned in detention centres in Australia.

They will spend

CHRISTMAS IN DETENTION

Come to Afternoon Tea at 30 Waller Street, Ballarat

and show your support for

Human Rights in Australia

and help to assist people and their families behind the wire.

Picture from here

Pamela Curr - Refugee Rights Co-ordinator 

with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne

will speak on Australia's present immigration policy

and its repercussions.

Inquiries to Carmel

on 0401 175 045

or at

annekav123@yahoo.co.uk

Cronulla comes to Canberra - bigotry and racism and xenophia brought to you by Abbott, Rudd, and Morrison

Picture above from here

This article was posted on Facebook to-day 

by my old friend John O'Dempsey.

John, unlike me, has remained a Labor loyalist

in spite of Rudd's latest immigration policy. 

An illuminating article on Scott Morrison - 

Australia's Shadow Minister for Immigration -

was written by Nick Bryant in The Monthly

Scott Morrison's electorate covers the scene of the Cronulla riots.

Scott Morrison claims to be a Christian

and attends Shirelive Church.

www.shirelive.com

Scott Morrison stands in complete contrast

to the previous Member for Cook, Bruce Baird.

Bruce Baird is a Christian and it is discernible.

Bruce Baird, when in Parliament, was one of a

small number of Liberal Members of Parliament

who went against the tide of the Liberal Party

on immigration and asylum seeker matters.

The last of this small number leaves the Australian Parliament

at the conclusion of this parliamentary term. 

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, is a professing Christian

The Australian Labor Party has always had practising Christians

in parliament despite what vilifying conservate Christians may say.

Rudd is rather different insofaras he has been prepared

to wear his Christian adherence on his sleeve.

In his first Prime Ministerial term,

Rudd could be seen regularly on television

holding Press Conferences outside church on Sunday mornings.

Rudd, now in his second go as PM, does not appear to have 

re-instated this practice although it may yet occur.

He has spent a few week-ends away from Canberra.

Networkers, your Miss Eagle is a Christian too -

a practising one in two denominations, Anglican and Quaker.

I'm a rather simple soul and don't find much commonality

with either Scott Morrison or Kevin Rudd, in either faith or politics.

I don't consider myself doctrinaire

but rather a follower of the words of Jesus.

Jesus gave us two commandments -

we don't need ten if we follow the two thoroughly -

Love God with every part of our being

Love our neighbours (who are all inclusive) as ourselves.

These words are not hard to remember -

just not easy to do.

He also said this and you can reference it here:

 Beware of false prophets, 

who come to you in sheep’s clothing, 

but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 

You will know them by their fruits. 

Do men gather grapes from thornbushes 

or figs from thistles? 

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, 

but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,

 nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 

 Every tree that does not bear good fruit 

is cut down

 and thrown into the fire. 

Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Rudd, Abbott & Co are not impelled by deaths at sea. They want refugees off their backs. Displacement will be here awhile.

• By end 2012, the population under UNHCR’s responsibility was 35.8 million persons, taking account of new displacements, durable solutions, legal and demographic changes, improved availability of data, and revised estimates.
• Over the past 10 years, more than 836,000 refugees have arrived in industrialized countries through resettlement programmes. They are not included in UNHCR’s refugee statistics owing to the fact that they have found a durable solution. They remain however of concern to UNHCR.
• While UNHCR works to ensure that the rights and well-being of refugees are protected, the organization is also mandated to seek durable solutions that allow refugees to rebuild their lives in dignity and safety. There are three solutions for refugees: voluntary repatriation, local integration, or resettlement to a third country.
• The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimated the global number of persons displaced by armed conflict, generalized violence and human rights violations at the end of 2012 at some 28.8 million, the highest number in more than two decades.

The document below

can be read by scrolling down

or printed out by using the facility

on the bottom bar of the frame

@KRuddMP Have no comment on By Boat, No Visa policy. Beyond words. Filled with disgust. Links below to help those supporting refugees to campaign

Australian Government website:

This leads off the links because this is the most important and the place to start.

http://www.immi.gov.au/visas/humanitarian/novisa/

The URL says it all - hypocrisy, bureaucracy, and inhumanity.

Facebook

Nationwide rallies to-day: Don't Turn Away Refugees

Newspapers

The Age - 130720 - Rudd slams door on refugees

The Herald Sun - Editorial: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has rushed to judgment

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces plan to relocate all refugees who arrive by boat to Papua New Guinea

The Australian - 130720 - After years of failure, a refugee policy with merit

Rudd's hardline PNG solution

DAVID CROWE, NATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR – Kevin Rudd has pledged to give asylum-seekers "no chance" of settling in Australia if they arrive by boat.

·        INQUIRER: Fatal shore of Rudd's making 

·        PNG: Rewards, risks for O'Neill in pact 

·        DENNIS SHANAHAN: PM lurches to right Labor ship 

·        PAUL KELLY: PM's plan to redraw the political map 

·        GREG SHERIDAN: Solution must bridge credibility gap 

·        BLOCKED: Boatloads lost in sea of red tape 

·        CAUCUS: Policy deepens divisions in party 

·        INSIDE STORY: Boats shunned, they cling to hope 

Blogs

Michael Taylor - A post of writing dangerously about refugees - Ærchies Archive - Digital Detritus  [Taylor is a Green]

NoelyNeate -  PNG: That's what's going on nothing's fine I'm torn - Ya Think? [Neate is not a member of a political party although confesses to a long ago membership of the Australian Democrats.]

Turn Left in The Australian Independent Media Network - ALP: And a step to the right? in two quotes [Turn Left is very much to the left but what sort of left is not clear from their blog.  The AIMN is ALP leaning]

ABC

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Address to the nation.  YouTube Video

Rudd to send all boat arrivals to PNG - mp3 and link to transcript of report

Asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat to be resettled in Papua New Guinea (contains video of Rudd signing agreement and an mp3 from the program PM + extensive material)

Police attend full-scale riot at asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru

Federal Government launches advertising blitz to promote PNG asylum seeker deal (YouTube clip as well)

Rudd to send all boat arrivals to PNG - Transcript from PM. You can listen to PM at this site as well.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's fresh asylum seeker deal to 'shock' Papua New Guineans by Sean Dorney (Dorney is one of the most knowledgable Australians regarding PNG) 

The PNG solution from this morning's Saturday Extra. Can listen on this site.

Regional settlement arrangement under Rudd won't work: Abbott (video)