It was reported in the Independent today that Australia is to try to recruit 31000 British workers, in particular medics, teachers, police officers, plumbers and builders. It is hardly surprising that Australia feels it can benefit from the situation in Britain by tempting workers with higher wages, whilst the British government feels it’s fine to allow the pay of British workers, in particular medics but others too, to fall far behind.
This country already has a dire shortage of doctors, and a labour shortage in many other areas too, and this recruitment drive will deprive this country of further medics and other workers when they are so badly needed here. We have had many threads on Gransnet over the last few years discussing the difficulty of getting an appointment with a GP and if this recruitment drive is successful, as it surely will be, we can clearly expect to wait even longer to see a GP as many more will leave and take their skills to pastures new. In fact waits for everything from a doctor’s appointment to getting a builder to do work will become longer and more difficult to obtain.
What is to be done? When will the government actually understand that the answer to Labour shortages is not to make people work till they drop (thus avoiding paying a pension until people are pushing seventy) but to pay a rate commensurate with the level of skill? We need a highly trained and skilled workforce but we are haemorrhaging highly skilled workers already, we cannot afford to lose another 31000.
No one does complain about us poaching qualified staff from the Philippines, India etc but I have thought for years that we are immoral for doing so when their countries need them so much, but obviously that’s just me.
I meant that they might not like it as much as they think they would if they came back to the UK.
The problem with emigrating is homesickness, not necessarily for the country you left, but for the people you leave behind.
Indeed Callistemon as I have just found out (but no wish to derail this thread to one about NZ) so, as you were.
maddyone
However, I do hope that those posters who enthusiastically support this Australian policy will not be appearing on yet another thread shortly complaining about how they can’t get an appointment with their GP for the next three or four weeks. Actions have consequences and more doctors leaving means fewer doctors here, which means longer to wait for an appointment.
If you mean me maddyone I’m not enthusiastically supporting it, I’m saying that I can completely understand why people choose to do it - that’s not the same thing. Our government does exactly the same, just not as successfully at the moment because we have so much less to offer.
Actually, I thought yesterday when I discovered this renewed policy from Australia, I actually think Australia is a pretty racist country institutionally, because whilst they turned away the boat people from Vietnam, they wouldn’t even let them land for God’s sake, they have simultaneously targeted British people (white people) for years, since the ten pound Pom scheme to this latest initiative targeting British people yet again.
maddyone
No one does complain about us poaching qualified staff from the Philippines, India etc but I have thought for years that we are immoral for doing so when their countries need them so much, but obviously that’s just me.
No, not just you, maddyone but recruitment of medical staff from India and other countries is huge business.
We can hardly complain if other countries do the same and encourage our trained staff to go.
It's the way of the world, people have gone to seek a better life elsewhere for centuries.
I didn’t specifically mean you Casdon. I meant anyone who supports one thing whilst simultaneously complaining about an action resulting directly from the first thing.
I have despised our government’s actions in poaching staff from poor, third world countries for years. But I don’t blame those staff for taking advantage of those offers.
maddyone
Actually, I thought yesterday when I discovered this renewed policy from Australia, I actually think Australia is a pretty racist country institutionally, because whilst they turned away the boat people from Vietnam, they wouldn’t even let them land for God’s sake, they have simultaneously targeted British people (white people) for years, since the ten pound Pom scheme to this latest initiative targeting British people yet again.
No, at one time Australia actively recruited immigrants from the Far East.
What Australia discourages is illegal immigration. The highest number of immigrants to Australia are still those from the Far East and India.
The top 10 countries providing the most permanent migrants to Australia in order of rank for 2020–21 are:
People’s Republic of China
India
United Kingdom
Philippines
Vietnam
United States of America
Nepal
Hong Kong (SAR of the PRC)
Pakistan
Thailand
In addition to the top 10, Indonesia is profiled to provide a regional context of migration to Australia.
The top three source countries of humanitarian entrants in 2020–21 to Australia are:
Iraq
Myanmar
Afghanistan
Callistemon, no we can’t blame them at all, but I pity the poor people in these very poor countries who are left with even fewer resources than previously. However, some of them do send money home to their families which helps them at least.
Casdon
maddyone
However, I do hope that those posters who enthusiastically support this Australian policy will not be appearing on yet another thread shortly complaining about how they can’t get an appointment with their GP for the next three or four weeks. Actions have consequences and more doctors leaving means fewer doctors here, which means longer to wait for an appointment.
If you mean me maddyone I’m not enthusiastically supporting it, I’m saying that I can completely understand why people choose to do it - that’s not the same thing. Our government does exactly the same, just not as successfully at the moment because we have so much less to offer.
I’m not enthusiastically supporting it, I’m saying that I can completely understand why people choose to do it - that’s not the same thing
I'm not enthusiastically supporting it either but I know it happens, has happened for years and that the UK does exactly the same.
maddyone
Callistemon, no we can’t blame them at all, but I pity the poor people in these very poor countries who are left with even fewer resources than previously. However, some of them do send money home to their families which helps them at least.
That's what workers from poorer EU countries did when they came to the UK.
That’s interesting Callistemon, certainly the profile of the small bits of Australia that I have visited is more white than in New Zealand. Maybe this will gradually change if they are importing more people from elsewhere now, but it wasn’t immediately obvious on my visit.
I think GPS are not that well paid here but nurses are, by comparison. Specialists are very well paid but then they would be in the UK, too. As for the comments about brownness and the dry country well Australia is absolutely huge so you can’t generalise. Some parts are tropical green, some are sub tropical green, some are temperate zones and some are arid desert zones. I think it is 32 times the size of the UK. Where I live the temps vary from freezing point to 42 C but usually around 20-24C which is lovely. It is too dry but then I personally like the sunshine and find rain a bit depressing.
There are many British professional agencies whose speciality is to entice key staff, incl. doctors and nurses, to go and work abroad. They charge high fees for doing so, and they will spend quite a lot on targetting, and entertaining (dinners, 'bribes')- both ways.
There are also large agencies which entice medical professionals to come from countries like India, Pakistan to come and work in the wonderful NHS.
I remember reading about one which was set up by an Indian Consultant who came to work here and, of course, he knows the market in both countries.
nanna8
I think GPS are not that well paid here but nurses are, by comparison. Specialists are very well paid but then they would be in the UK, too. As for the comments about brownness and the dry country well Australia is absolutely huge so you can’t generalise. Some parts are tropical green, some are sub tropical green, some are temperate zones and some are arid desert zones. I think it is 32 times the size of the UK. Where I live the temps vary from freezing point to 42 C but usually around 20-24C which is lovely. It is too dry but then I personally like the sunshine and find rain a bit depressing.
Brown and parched
🤔 Australia has the oldest tropical rain forests in the world.
Sorry, quoted wrong post - I wasn't querying what you wrote, nanna8 because I know you know!!
I heard on a programme on R4 where they were discussing the various reasons for the shortage of GPs that a large cohort of Indian recruited GPs were all retiring at the same time; a major factor in the shortage, and of experienced GPs in particular. If this is true, then why wasn't this anticipated? Surely these kind of facts, such as an ageing population which statistically needs more health care, are why we have a census every 10 years?
Some Consultants are retiring early because of the problems they are encountering with their pension funds. One such Consultant was on TV a few weeks ago saying many of them feel it is not worth continuing to work for the NHS.
www.bma.org.uk/our-campaigns/consultant-campaigns/pension/end-the-pension-tax-trap
GrannyGravy13
Other Countries have always targeted U.K. workers just as the U.K. has always had recruitment drives abroad, nothing new.
This.
Not everyone wants to live in Australia in any case. Very hot weather, scary insects and snakes and expensive in many ways.
Relocating a whole family isn’t easy, leaving friends and relatives behind and so on.
Nanna8, I hope you do not feel offended by the comments on this thread and the implication that Australia is an economic backwater full of snakes, scary insects, bush fires and a racist country!
The other day, some idiot on the Politics and News thread even called Singapore – Slum of the Future. She obviously does not know that the Singapore government spend billions of dollars every year building subsidized government flats for its citizens to buy.
My younger brother lives in Perth for many years and he has never said a bad word about Australia. A cousin of mine works as a doctor in one of the hospitals in Perth.
My daughter will be making a trip to Australia for her work later this year. She will be visiting Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. It will be interesting to see what she thinks of Australia.
There is a shortage of nurses, midwives and doctors worldwide. As far as I am concerned, they can go and work in any country they want.
I don’t think anyone can be offended by the truth.
You may not see many dangerous insects or reptiles in the city but plenty in the countryside.
Bush fires, yes, those too.A racist country? Not sure but they did have harsh rules for anyone arriving illegally.
Am sure there are many upsides to living in Australia too but no point fibbing about the bad points.
Whereas the UK is just perfect 😀
the implication that Australia is an economic backwater full of snakes, scary insects, bush fires and a racist country!
As my SIL said "I've lived here all my life and never got bitten by a spider, then you arrive and one finds you" 🕷
Bloke on BBC interviewed was from Perth, which is a lovely city, but he did rather dodge the question that the real shortages in their region were back of beyond hundreds of miles from aforementioned paradises.
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