Sign up to Gransnet Daily
Our free daily newsletter full of hot threads, competitions and discounts
Subscribe
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.
ronib
Well Australia maybe has easier working conditions for medics because of its migration policies? Basically only fit people need apply?
Also are women still called Sheila?
Re Sheila........you've been watching old movies I think ! The term "sheila" for a woman went out of use about 50 years ago from my memory !
You won’t get much if anything at all for the equivalent of 450$ anywhere near London either. Basic, nothing special, one perhaps two bedrooms in a scruffy area..housing here is a major problem.
Hi Nanna 8, similar over this side of the ditch, esp Auckland and Wellington. Severe housing/rental shortage and expensive to boot. Despite many kiwis heading over your way for better pay you’d think there would be houses standing empty! Not so, heaven only knows where new migrants that NZ is hoping to attract are to live, coupled with the aftermath of cyclone Gabriella leaving so many house uninhabitable. Not so well thought out by the powers that be, we need more houses!
The cost of housing here is dreadful now if you are looking at Sydney or Melbourne. Similar to London I have been told and I feel so sorry for the young ones trying to get into the housing market. It is very expensive to rent, too - around $450 per week for something pretty basic.
I think it's the pressure of working for the NHS for many staff now, too.
The cost of living has gone up in Australia quite rapidly too.
Unsurprising that key workers would be tempted to Oz given a Tory government unwilling to address their wages and the cost of living in the UK.
nanna8
I’ve never had a spider bite or snakebite and I don’t know anyone who has, either. As to preference given to UK migrants, no, not now. Indian and Chinese migrants are the majority. We can’t afford to be Tavistock with more than 50 % born overseas. I get sick of hearing this nonsense.
Australia has taken hundreds of thousands of refugees over the years.
www.redcross.org.au/act/help-refugees/refugee-facts/#:~:text=Australia%20has%20a%20long%20history,and%20volunteering%20within%20our%20communities.
Does Australia have more refugees than other countries?
No. In 2021, most refugees and people seeking asylum (72%) resided in their neighbouring countries if it was safe for them to do so. Most of these were developing countries, with 83% of refugees overall being hosted by low to middle income countries.
For example, in 2020 Sudan recognised 125,600 new refugees on a group basis, the most by a single country that year. Throughout 2020, Bangladesh continued to host 854,782 people in a refugee-like situation from Myanmar and in 2018 Turkey granted temporary protection to 397,600 refugees from Syria.
Does Australia have more asylum claims than other countries?
No. Most people seek asylum in their neighbouring countries if it is safe for them to do so. In 2021, 72% of refugees and people seeking asylum resided in their neighbouring countries The top hosting countries are:
Turkey (3.8million)
Colombia (1.8 million)
Pakistan and Uganda (1.5 million)
Germany (1.3 million)
Around the world in 2021, 1.4 million new claims for asylum were lodged with governments or through UNHCR
Many refugees want to stay in neighbouring countries in the hope that one day they can return home to rebuild their countries and live there in peace.
Well Australia maybe has easier working conditions for medics because of its migration policies? Basically only fit people need apply?
Also are women still called Sheila?
That is, the UK is more charitable.
The UK is though. We don’t turn away boat people like Australia does do we!
Katie59 my friends had a very good pension and weren’t relying on Oz to support them. The disabled child was not going to live in Australia. Don’t quite understand the charity comment.
All countries regulate migrants, if you are young, healthy and have a skill they need, you will get in. The other ways are, move a lot of money with you, have children resident there and take your UK pension with you.
Oz is not a charity !.
My friends were denied permission to migrate to Perth because one of their children had a disability. The argument was that this child would become a financial burden on the State. The child in question was by now an adult and was going to stay in the UK, under the guardianship of a family member.
I don’t know if these rules still apply as it happened some time ago but Australia seemed a very difficult country to enter then.
Tavistock=RACIST
I’ve never had a spider bite or snakebite and I don’t know anyone who has, either. As to preference given to UK migrants, no, not now. Indian and Chinese migrants are the majority. We can’t afford to be Tavistock with more than 50 % born overseas. I get sick of hearing this nonsense.
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.
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" 🕷
Whereas the UK is just perfect 😀
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.
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.
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.
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
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?
Sorry, quoted wrong post - I wasn't querying what you wrote, nanna8 because I know you know!!
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.
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »Get our top conversations, latest advice, fantastic competitions, and more, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
