Jobs
What a huge news week it was last week. Sabi the dog came home. Tiger Woods fever gripped the country, and like Ol’ Man River our Australian economy keeps just keep rolling along.
With apologies to Tiger I know we’re not out of the woods yet and nobody’s taking the hands off the wheel, but it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on our achievement as a nation.
Last week’s jobs figures came in at 5.8%. 670,000 unemployed Australians is too many and we expect that unemployment will continue to rise in the coming months. But the community resilience in the face of this threat has been fantastic.
Continue reading "Bennelong, where jobs prove the stimulus is working" »
What the hell was that? As a parent with a child in school for the first time I have just withstood a round of what I suspect will become the regular school holiday juggle.
After taking one week’s leave the battle-plans were laid out: a day with said child in the office, play dates lined up, grandparents locked in – and then she gets sick meaning the fragile house of cards came tumbling down.
It’s a simple rule of math really, schoolkids have around 12 weeks of holidays each year while their parents average four - that’s a lot of time when households are juggling care.
Continue reading "Juggling family life - how leave doesn’t add up" »
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forex robot says:
nice post. thanks. Read more »
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Mr Pastry says:
Studies show Cavemen worked 8 hours a week, its been downhill all the way since then. Read more »
Last week I was fortunate to be invited to be part of the launch of a new business on Kangaroo Island, which is in my electorate.
Kangaroo Island is one of the most beautiful parts of Australia, it is frontier country.
But the very thing that makes it so beautiful for the hundreds of thousands of tourists is the same thing that makes it so challenging for its residents and its economy.
Continue reading "Entrepreneurial spirit beats government every time" »
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Russ says:
But you have just shown how the assistance of the Rudd government in the form of our trade commission was a very important part of this success. You dill. Read more »
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Shane From Melbourne says:
I’m sure the duopoly of Coles and Woolworths and all the banks would agree with you. The government should keep out of the economy and let them rip off the consumer. Epic fail on this article for intellectual content. Read more »
I have a friend - let’s call him Jeffery - who has been anonymously toiling at the same company for two thankless years.
Last week, he decided he wanted out, and applied for a job at a funky new ‘web 2.0’ outfit. Mild and self-effacing, poor Jeffery had no idea of the ordeal that awaited him.
I got a call after the interview. The voice on the other end sounded sad and despondent. ‘I really stuffed up’…
Continue reading "What are your hobbies? And other stupid questions" »
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kimmeh says:
I once got. “Do you believe in Christmas?” I still don’t know how to answer this. Read more »
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Kel says:
WELL SAID CHASE STEVENS! Read more »
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the same adage can be applied to women’s equality in society. However, lately it feels like construction has come to a complete halt.
Research released this week by the Australia Institute positioned women as one of the groups hardest hit by the financial crisis in the workplace. While more men had lost full-time jobs than women, women faced worsening underemployment in the form of limited hours and poor pay.
The women hardest hit by this news will be those who can least afford it – struggling lone mothers and women from low-income backgrounds.
Continue reading "Women are the real losers in the Global Financial Crisis" »
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Stay at home Mum says:
I am a stay at home Mum. Many women I mention this to consider me a parasite or a moron, lacking in voice and freedom. My partner works a long week to bring the bacon in. I cook it, clean up after it, teach the children for the first 6… Read more »
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Steve says:
You women had better watch what you wish for because the more you nag men the sooner we will send you to afghanistan to defend freedom in that country alongside womens rights given to them on a silver platter. Now wouldn’t that be refreshing rather than sending 19 year old… Read more »
One of the great benefits of representing a regional electorate is the opportunity to attend many local shows.
Whether it is Mount Barker, Mount Pleasant, Strathalbyn or Kangaroo Island – shows represent what is great about regional Australia – although you can take or leave the Dagwood Dogs.
But there is a danger lurking for these regional celebrations in the form of yet another bungled Rudd Government “reform”, a danger that threatens the very survival of the small regional shows.
Continue reading "Your local country show is under threat" »
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stephen says:
I love backpackers. They’re different. (maaate) Read more »
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stephen says:
Instead of the Government regulating businesses, why don’t the people do it. A website could be set up, naming recalcitrant corporations and enterprizes which abuse their authority toward workers. The website would be specific, and consumer pressure would be brought to bear. Read more »
Here’s a quiz for your readers. How many green jobs did Kevin Rudd announce at the Labor Party Conference and how many of them were new?
Many readers of the Punch could be forgiven for thinking they heard the Prime Minister promise to deliver 50 000 new green jobs.
Unfortunately like so many of the Government’s announcements about a large array of job creation and training programmes it pays to read the fine print.
Continue reading "Labor’s green jobs promise is a huge lie" »
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johnv_au says:
This is called in political circles spin we will create jobs fix the hospital system its what we in the real world do when the wife askes to fix some thing around the house we say yes dear but have no intentions of doing it Or we will patch it… Read more »
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Toddzilla says:
Darren, you clearly don’t know what the word Orwellian means. In fact, Workchoices is almost the exact opposite of Orwellian as it was based on freedom of choice rather than compulsion. You might argue that the ALP’s IR policies are Orwellian and you’d be much closer to the mark. Read more »
In a speech to Young Labor seven months ago I said that generations were often unfairly criticised by the ones which preceded them.
The young adults of Generation Y are often generalised as being plagued by apathy and indifference.
They’re sometimes called lazy and ungrateful for the many perceived advantages they have over earlier generations.
Continue reading "My speech on Gen Y was about tough love" »
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G says:
Go Mark, at least your keeping up the team’s ‘standard’ of really really poor performance. If you keep it up you will be almost as un-popular as Stephen Conroy MP actually no, that’s not possible) or Jenny Macklin MP. Way to go Labor party ... Read more »
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casey says:
Others will underestimate us. For although we judge ourselves by what we feel we are capable of, others judge us only by what we have done. - Henry Wadsworth I was at last year’s Young Labor Conference and Senator Arbib described my Generation as the ‘Net Generation’, the generation that… Read more »
When I was 19, I started mapping out my career plans. I was in my second year of university when I decided to volunteer as an unpaid intern for two full days per week at a magazine publishing house. My baby-boomer father never understood how I could do it for two years without pay (while working weekends in retail, where yes, I dealt with the worst customers imaginable and cleaned up kid vomit from the floor of my store), but I had faith in the fact that it would one day pay off.
One day was not this week, because this week, Employment Minister Mark Arbib is urging Gen Y to readjust their ideas about work and employment, stop the “snobbery” associated with certain means of work, and take whatever jobs they could get. For someone whose attitude to work has more to do with paying university fees and funding my internet bill than snobbery and a class act on the career ladder, Senator Arbib’s comments did not go down too well. And I was not the only one to notice.
Generation Y has long bore the brunt of the attention-seeking, lazy, power-hungry generation that refused to put in the hard yards for their future, something which the Senator might have capitalised on in his address to a young labor conference last week. What he failed to recognise is the fact that Generation Y has suffered long enough as a result of this stereotype, and as such, was ditching conventional forms and methods of work in favour of something that works for them.
Continue reading "Gen Y is picky? You call it snobbery, we call it tactic" »
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Celeste says:
Like Dan I as a quallified Beauty therapist couldn’t get a job anywhere because he didn’t have “the experience”, and was never given the opportunity to actually earn it. Another Gen Y fave, Yet I have been working in a supermarket for the last six (6) years. Read more »
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Gillian says:
Interesting article Sarah. The phrase ‘Gen Y’ seems to trigger off a lot of emotions. In this article, Sarah demonstrated with the help of a few examples that Gen Y aren’t always lazy, have a sense of ‘self entitlement’ or expect everything to be handed to them on a silver… Read more »
There aren’t many things that are more important than making sure someone has a job. If you want to fix inequality and social disadvantage in a community, if you want to give someone a leg-up in life, you find them a decent job.
For the Labor Party, jobs are in our DNA and that’s why it is such an honour to be sworn in today as the Federal Minister for Employment Participation.
Sadly we are confronted with the reality that this week a new set of unemployment figures will come out and they will probably show more Australians are out of work.
Continue reading "How the new jobs minister will help keep you employed" »
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Elizabeth Jarvis says:
I for one think Howard and Costello’s massive surpluses were economic vandalism on a grand scale. We go on about debts, but building up massive surpluses means the Government is not spending the money they’re collecting on the things they should be providing for us - better health facilities, education,… Read more »
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Bob Simpson says:
Mark, you’re living in ideological dreamland! And, if you’re one of the Prime Minister’s favourites, we should be really worried. Have you ever created a job by taking a personal and financial risk, developing an idea, planning and executing a marketing strategy, selling the product or service at a loss,… Read more »
IT was stirring stuff from ACTU president Sharan Burrow this week: ``How can the CEO of Pacific Brands take home her salary while she sends 1850 workers and their families to the poverty of unemployment? Shame.’‘
You’d need a heart of stone not to feel something for the hundreds of workers likely to lose their jobs. And you wouldn’t be alone if you reserved a special kind of anger for the actions of Pacific Brands.
But, really, does Sue Morphet, the reviled chief executive of the company behind Bonds and Berlei, deserve all the blame?
Continue reading "Sue Morphet, Australian businesswoman of the year" »
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Shire Mum says:
I would like to say (belatedly) the fact that Sue’s salary was nearly tripled is a big issue for the workers who have been made redundant. Redundancy is not a magic pill for most people - it can have a devestating effect on the self-esteem that’s for sure. I think… Read more »
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Sandra Davey says:
In business (and the media), there’s a set of rules for men and a set of rules for women, and how Sue Morphet has been treated demonstrates this brilliantly. Mathieson comes so close to hitting on the truth but skirts (excuse the pun!) around it each time. Morphet is a… Read more »
WELL, that’s a blow. The worst global financial crisis for two generations and Australia can’t even muster a decent recession.
This morning’s numbers, showing the economy grew - grew! - in the March quarter, provide disappointment for households that have traded down from Leconfield to Lindemans and for companies that have appeared a little too eager to wave the pink slips.
Were their budgetry sacrifices in vain?
Continue reading "What recession? It’s a pity we went and sacked everyone" »
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Vicgal says:
To Wendy, you will find you are wrong in your ‘astrological prediction’ here, get your head out of the sand lol..You will find by 2011 not 2012 that things will be rolling ahead again… for now the Rudd Government have averted the worst of the recession from Australia and I… Read more »
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Alec Watson says:
Companies have taken advantage of the downturn to flick all their dead wood, pay cuts and reduced hours. I often wonder if these action alone caused most of the perceptions we have about the recession. Read more »
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