In Australia we are suffering from a massive failure of public policy. The decision made today at the VCGR is a symptom of a deep illness within all our governments. Julia Gillard’s recent publicly broken promise to Andrew Wilkie is another.

On the VCGR’s About Us page they proudly claim: With a strong community focus, the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation administers Victoria’s gambling legislation by licensing, educating and advising members of the gambling industry and the general public.

The first part is laughable. ‘With a strong community focus’. The jury has been back for a long time on the damage gambling does to communities.

Our State and Territory governments are chronically dependent on gambling taxes, which account for an average 10 per cent of their revenues, and are higher in Victoria (13 per cent), South Australia (13 per cent) and Northern Territory (17 per cent).(1)

State and Territory governments show little interest in protecting us, their citizens, from gambling-related harms. Despite so-called ‘harm minimisation’ measures, gambling losses and harm to individuals, families and communities continue to rise.

In 1983, the Victorian government appointed a board of inquiry to consider whether to introduce poker machines to Victoria. The board’s report ran to 800 pages and recommended they NOT be introduced. (2)

The NOT was in capital letters and on the first line of page one. Pokies were legalised in Victoria nine years later, and every shade of government since has embraced poker machines and their revenue.

A 2010 Victorian Department of Justice report found that pokies were the second biggest cause of crime, behind drug addiction.

A 2005 report by the SA Centre for Economic Studies found that 3.2 jobs are created for every $1 million of gambling income. By comparison, for liquor/beverages it’s 8.3 jobs and for food/meals it’s 20.2 jobs. (3)

Australia had 20.4 per cent of all the world’s poker machines. Additionally, the SA Centre for Economic Studies found that 42.3 per cent of every dollar going through a poker machine was coming from a problem gambler. Around 40 per cent of this tawdry $11.9 billion industry is fed by desperate Australians with a gambling addiction. (4)

These problems are well known in Australia and internationally. The Reverend Tim Costello, speaking in Castlemaine in late 2010, told the story of how a group of Lords from the British Parliament had visited Australia to investigate ‘how to avoid the Australian disaster’.

And the benefits? The captains of the gambling industry have enjoyed benefits, vast profits from public licenses, virtual licenses to print money.

A Sydney Morning Herald investigation found the biggest NSW clubs donate just 2.7 per cent of earnings back to communities. Despite promises of largesse from the MHS , the organisation is planning to come to Castlemaine to make money. It’s that simple. You don’t give your profits away, despite vague promises of $200,000 ($50,000 in cash and $150,000 in ‘free rooms’) and if there were ever an industry more focused on profit than the gambling industry please point it out. And $50,000 is a minute percentage of the forecast revenue from this planned venture.

Bishop Jeremy Alston had a piece in the local hard copy media recently, suggesting we were being divided by tough issues, such as the swimming pool and the poker machines. He suggested we needed to respect each other’s opinions and work our way through, to find our common humanity.

It is nevertheless difficult to find commonality with an industry that has lied and cheated to get its way, that is fixated on power, greed and money and cares nothing for local communities.

The VCGR surely had its tongue firmly planted in its cheek when it wrote in its ruling that The Commission has considered the likely social and economic impacts of the proposal and concluded that there will be positive economic benefits to the Castlemaine community if the application were to be approved.

But then, the VCGR is an arm of government, and what are its commissioners but bureaucrats on the public payroll, 13 per cent of which comes from gambling?

1.Risky business: Why the Commonwealth needs to take over gambling regulation, Alfred Deakin Research Institute
2. It’s criminal how pokies can turn people into hopeless addicts, The Age
3. The South Australian Gambling Industry Final Report, Commissioned by the South Australian Independent Gambling Authority
4. Risky business: Why the Commonwealth needs to take over gambling regulation, Alfred Deakin Research Institute

The tour will showcase four sustainable homes, all with passive solar design and incorporating a diversity of styles and building materials.

This shire is well-regarded for its leadership, community passion and creativity in the area of sustainability.

For anyone thinking of building or renovating this tour is a must!  On this tour you will have an opportunity to talk to the home owners and designers in this in depth tour of four unique sustainable homes in Castlemaine.

Local designers Lifehouse will also talk about their recent Building Design Association of Victoria award winning ten-star house design.

This event costs $30 for individuals, $20 for low income and MASG members or $50 for couples and  includes the house tours and  written information about the houses.

For information and bookings visit www.masg.org.au/housetours or call MASG on 0448 327 791.

At the last CI staff meeting

It’s CI’s birthday! Two.

How would you live without us? Let us know! Congratulate us.

Conditions of congratulating us:

1. No hate bloggers

2. No nasty comments about those pro or anti the swimming pool

3. No free trips to the Maryborough Highland Society club in Maryborough to play pokies

4. No calling the editor so deluded it is almost funny/a leftist agitator who does a pretty poor impersonation of a journo/asking him just WHO he is and WHAT planet he is from/that he uses weary old tools of the leftist and points the Nazi finger of shame/saying he has a juvenile and sarcastic manner/an idiot

5. No saying the editor’s sophistry is breathtaking. Sophistication – yes, sophistry – no.

6. No saying Far from being independent and un-biased, the author still favours left/green articles and continues to take swipes at Howard, Bush and other captains of capitalism.

7. No saying CI will suit local self-styled artists and pseudo intelligentsia. Some discretion should be used if allowing minors to visit it as offensive language is contained in some articles.

8. No calling CI a litany of self indulgent shite/not only inflamatory but also pathetic/truly awful, biased and disenfranchised piece of garbage/grubby little ploy … nothing short of disgusting

9. NO THREATENING US in capital letters. No threatening us in little letters. Neither law suits nor fish in the letter box.

10. No threats to inter CI staff at the Olde Gaol (at least if you’re planning it, MAKE IT A SURPRISE)

11. Take out a paid ad with us!

12. Contribute!

This is a letter of objection in regards to the “Council’s withdrawal of commercial waste collection, effective from 1 April, 2012″.

As a retailer in Barker Street I am anxiously concerned as to the choices, direction and outcome this decision has and will make on the “CBD” area of Castlemaine.

What concerns me and my business the most is the health and safety aspect. As Little Makers is now placed in a growing food strip, I am concerned about the “tip toe brigade” emptying their food waste into the public bins. There is one near the front of the shop. I am concerned with the level of hygiene. I am concerned with “a tidy town” illusion for the tourists. I am concerned with the council’s inability to ask questions, advice, ideas on how the businesses of Castlemaine could help with the problem. I am concerned with the: ”Two information sessions will be conducted for Businesses in February and March.”

that seem to be dated too little too late for a productive change.

A quaint gesture on an already sealed decision.

I am concerned with the proposed retail v’s residential loop-hole.

For example in one block of Barker street there is one resident who will be granted rubbish collection rights by the council.

I am concerned about fairness, council supporting the community and working with a fluctuating industry.

I hope youhave heard and understood my concerns

Thank you for reading.

Yours etc

Deita Walters

The pads proved popular for those wishing to express their opinion

Photos and story by CI photographer Matt Wobbly

The Mt Alexander Shire Souncil held their Aquatic Centre information session at the Town Hall yesterday. From the charged atmosphere inside the hall you would believe there was a toxic waste dump proposed for the  Western Reserve.

The well attended meeting, which had no formal speakers or question and answer session, displayed various aspects of the proposal on office partitions around the hall. After viewing the large printouts disclosing different aspects of the design the public had the opportunity to write their opinions on large paper pads around the room.  The pads proved popular and were quickly covered with a wide range of opinions on them, some supporting  the pool, others objecting to elements of the design, its function or the lack of size, but there was one position that was repeated on almost every page  and that was the objection to placing a pool on the Western Reserve.

The Mayor was busy addressing the concerns of the residents.

The attendees wasted no time in making their opinions heard,  speaking with the council staff and Councillors present as well as filling out forms on the tables and the large pads around the room. Council representatives appeared overwhelmed and very stressed by the number of people and the strength of conviction in the many varied objectors.

Outside the front door greeting people and collecting signatures as they arrived was a Save The Western group. The group did a brisk business collecting a large number of signatures during the meeting. The protesters, carrying placards and trying to make their way into the hall, were confronted at the door by the shire CEO Phil Rowland.

Whatever your own opinions on the Aquatic Centre, it’s clear that the council needs to rethink this proposal. If they plan to soldier on to put the pool on the Western Reserve it will not only cost them a lot of extra time and money, but it will cost them their credibility and without credibility you can’t get government funding.

Save the Western campaingers collecting signatures at the front door.

As a person working in the employment services sector I have seen what happens when redundancies result from the phasing out of some industries, particularly those in manufacturing. I have also seen the potential for job creation from new industries. I have a very strong preference for the Community Renewable Energy (CRE) model which involves construction of wind farms by communities, maximising community consultation, participation and sharing of profits.

The placement of wind turbines has provoked much controversy. Critics are divided between people concerned about visual impact who don’t share my admiration for these majestic inventions and those concerned about possible negative health effects. Some scientific data is beginning to emerge from studies that needs to be carefully considered. Permit applications need to be dealt with transparently and with effective local consultation.

Last weekend on the campaign trail I was confronted by a very aggressive anti-wind farm campaigner in Sutton Grange who asserted that the majority of his neighbours were strongly opposed to any placement of wind turbines in his neighbourhood. He derided statistics used by our local sustainability group indicating that a large majority of the Mount Alexander Shire community are in favour of wind farms and suggested that there was some sort of secret list of proposed sites.

Without wishing to increase the heat in this debate, I wonder if CI would be prepared to facilitate a reasoned debate on this controversial subject?

Hans Paas
Castlemaine

The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation conducts hearings to grant licenses – or not grant them – to applicants seeking to place poker machines in a new venue. In a nutshell, these hearings are based around what is called the ‘no net detriment test.’

This test is about weighing up the benefits of the applicant’s proposal as presented by the applicant with the costs or detriments as presented by those opposing the application, usually the local government authority.

The hearing room last week was small, stuffy and jam-packed with people, but these slightly unfavourable conditions did not prevent more revelations from the Maryborough Highland Society about their own misplaced confidence. This hearing had the MHS with their team of lawyers and witnesses against the Mt Alexander Shire and their legal representation and witnesses, including EPIC.

Chairman of the VCGR, Bruce Thompson, was presiding over matters and Commissioner Gail Owen assisted. Present was Mr Brown providing legal counsel to the hearing on behalf of the Commission.

Before the hearing got under way, Mr Thompson asked for Mr Brown to state clearly what the hearing was all about and how it would proceed. Brown went to some length to reinforce that the hearing was about weighing up the benefits against the costs.

Witness number one for the highlanders was Don Hester. In his statement, Hester explained that he was forced to “resign” from his position as general manager due to the ill health associated with the stresses of his job. He pointed the finger of blame for his stress at the organised campaign by some people in Castlemaine to discredit not only the MHS’s plan but also him personally. I’ve been called “The Don”, Mr Hester told the Commission.

Hester spoke at length about EPIC, its tactics, individuals supposedly associated with EPIC, the nasty business of the Society’s information night in February 2011 “where no woman felt secure”, the personal attacks on him and general miscellaneous comments about the connection between EPIC, Chris Hosking (“I think it was Chris himself that told me he was Vice President of EPIC”, he said.)

Mr Hester explained that during the lead up to the Society’s public meeting in the Town Hall, it was suggested to him by Mt Alexander’s CEO that some security should be employed because of the potential for trouble.

I checked this story out with the CEO not long after the Society’s meeting and the both the CEO and the hall booking officer knew nothing of any Shire-driven suggestion for security.

Under cross-examination Mr Hester claimed there was little in the way of information and details about the MHS’s proposal made available to the Castlemaine community other than the information evening.

Next witness for the highlanders was John Inglis, the Society’s current President.

Mr Inglis revealed nothing new and under cross examination, when asked if he had ever spoken with anyone from EPIC, he said something like, “Oh no. I never talk to people of that ilk.”

After Mr Inglis was excused from the witness box, Mr Thompson again reminded everyone that the hearing was about costs and benefits and that issues of behaviour, as set by the first two witnesses, were not for the consideration of the Commission.

Mr Hester and Mr Inglis wasted their opportunity to sell their plan and deliver to the Commission salient points of the benefits of their application, and chose instead to demonise their perceived enemy, EPIC, and all those who are against the plan.

Ian Braybrook presented as a witness for the highlanders as did Trevor Butcher. Mr Braybrook told the hearing he was general manager of the local community radio station and under cross-examination he revealed that he was not asked by the Society to be a witness.

Dr Rohan Miller was another witness for the Society as his company, DataHarvest, conducted a survey in the Castlemaine 3450 postcode area on behalf of the Society. This was not a Shire-wide survey, as was the Shire’s survey.

During his witness presentation, Dr Miller spent considerable time belittling and criticising the Shire’s survey.

Counsel for the Shire, Mr Rantino, then cross-examined Dr Miller to reveal that his survey was not a community attitude survey, as normally expected by the Commission, but something more akin to a marketing exercise, a field Miller specialises in. He declared: “Happiness is a temporal thing”.

Mr Rantino could not cross-examine Dr Miller as he would have liked as the Society did not include details of Miller’s survey in their submission, such as the questions in the survey.

Miller’s cross-examination would continue the next day where he would explain, using data and research (neither supplied), that there is no casual link between the number of poker machines and the number of problem gamblers.

The rest of the day was all about playing catch-ups and policy on the run for the Society.

Firstly it was revealed that the Society had changed its community benefit arrangement. The initial application by the MHS shows that $50,000 in cash would be given to Mt Alexander Shire-based sports clubs and societies and $150,000 worth of free room use at the clubs.

During the hearing this $200,000 morphed into “all the profits of the club will be returned to the community of Mt Alexander Shire.”

Counsel for the MHS even suggested to the Commission that a condition be attached to the license that says as much. Such a condition would prove unprecedented, but would not be able to be monitored.

During Don Hester’s witness presentation, the Kyneton Bowling Club was mentioned with the question do profits from the KBC get returned to the community?

Mr Hester replied more or less by saying they would if there were profits.

So it is safe to assume the Kyneton Bowling Club is not making a profit.

The proposed Castlemaine Sports and Entertainment Club may not make a profit either.

Who knows?

The Commission could be as confused as anyone over the way money is planned to be shifted around from Maryborough to Kyneton and to and from Castlemaine and here and there.

The rest of day one was uneventful until counsel for the Society declared that the Salvation Army is not next door to the goods shed. Obviously the Society’s counsel had undertaken no site inspection. Most members of the audience expressed their rejection of the lawyer’s incorrect assertion with loud denials and rebuffs.

The Salvation Army does have a chapel and rooms next door to the shed, and as this became obvious, counsel for the Society swung into action suggesting that the new club will exclude anyone the Salvation Army tells them to.

Here was another example of the Highlanders making poor strategy changes on the fly. The hearing would later hear that the Human Rights Commission would take a very dim view of this behaviour of the MHS.

In the proceedings of day one, there was confusing talk of the structure of the board of the new club for the goods shed.

There was emphasis on giving ALL the profits back to the community. There was the benefit of the $2.5 million refit to the goods shed. Or was that $3 million? Or $3.5 million? The Commission has all three figures in front of them. There was the benefit of the jobs provided by the club with no discussion that the hospitality jobs in the club’s bistro will be dependent on the MHS leasing out the kitchens because the club will not employ kitchen and waiting staff. If these venues did not have to fit kitchens etc, they would not bother.

We heard of the social capital that would be so much a place of the club, as if there is no social capital already visible in Castlemaine. EPIC is the epitome of social capital.

The cross-examination from the Society’s lawyer tended more to be character assassination than validation of information, research, data and data collection methodologies. And there was much emphasis by the MHS team, through cross-examination, on meaningless typographical errors and inconsistencies of the reportage of some of the Shire’s printed evidence rather than anything substantial and damaging to the Shire’s case.

A summary of the performance of the MHS and their delivery of a whole day of evidence to advance the case for the benefits of any new club does not take long.

Dr Rohan Miller’s survey collapsed under its own marketing weight and it was revealed Miller knew nothing of the connectedness between a good community attitude survey, the Romsey ruling, happiness per se and what the Commission expects of a good survey. There was no sense of cohesion among the MHS team with strategies seemingly morphing and suddenly appearing with no notice.

Meg Kearney, a regular legal stalwart of the MHS was constantly rifling through mountains of folders, documents, the Internet and bits of paper as she and counsel for the MHS seemed to stumble from one reaction to the next.

There was an overwhelming sense of spontaneous strategy formation during day one from the MHS team as they lurched from one spot fire to the next.

Day two was for the Shire and EPIC.

I will not give a long rundown on proceedings of day two except to say EPIC’s witnesses managed to re-focus the attention of everyone in the room to the core issues;

- negative change to the character of Castlemaine because of 65 more pokies

- Castlemaine-based stories of addiction to poker machines across

cultures

- accounts from a clinical psychologist relating to poker machine addiction

- and the view of the Castlemaine community that nobody asked for these

machines, nobody wants them and they are not needed.

Day two definitely belonged to the community of Castlemaine.

If the Commission says no to the MHS, they have two options; fight or fly. The highlanders can fight it out in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) or they just give the 65 poker machine entitlements back to the State of Victoria (or finish paying for them, then sell them) and walk out of the lease with Vic track on the goods shed.

Should the Commission say yes, the Shire can meet with the highlanders in VCAT.

My view is that should the Commission say NO to the highlanders it will be because of their bumbled survey and that the voice of the host community came through loud and clear at the hearing, allowing the Romsey ruling to come into play.

The latest VCAT ruling on a VCGR ruling shows that 12 months lapsed between these two events. The MHS must use their 65 entitlements before February 2013 or they forfeit them under the VCGR’s ‘use it or lose it’ rule.

It could be that come November of this year, if the highlanders are still without a license for their 65 entitlements, have no planning approval from the Shire, no permit from Heritage Vic and face with the ugly prospect of losing their entitlements, the board of the MHS may have to find another $325,000 just to keep their entitlements.

That extra cash will not be coming from Kyneton. More likely it will come from the generous and unwitting poker machine players of Maryborough, central Victoria’s struggle town.

First published on the Multicultural Media Exchange

MELBOURNE — Somali immigrants Abdulkadir Shire and Ali-nur Duale, like many other Australian job-seekers, have found it tough going to secure employment to fit their qualifications.

The two men, now in their fifties, have spent years applying for jobs in Melbourne without success — even after resorting to such tactics omitting their nationality and native language on CVs) and “de-Arabising” their first names by replacing them with initials. They even “downskilled” their résumés so as not to appear over-qualified in their applications for some jobs.

In Duale’s case, that meant omitting his PhD in applied entomology and a distinguished career developing crop-protection programs across Africa and India. Shire found his Masters in petrochemical engineering and a diploma from Victoria University no help in securing employment.
Last October, after more than 300 failed job applications in 17 years, Shire packed his bags and moved to Brisbane, where he is helping his wife start a family day-care business.

Duale is resigned to continue working as a casual interpreter for a refugee translation service.

“People say ‘why can’t you get a decent job, with all your qualifications?’” says Duale, described within his community as ‘the most qualified Somali in Australia’. “I have to lie and tell them ‘I just want to do something to help my own people.’ I’ve even told this to my children.”

There are no studies to measure the lost potential to Australia in terms of professional achievements or international standing in allowing many of the our best and brightest immigrants to work as drivers, translators or cleaners.

The ‘PhD’s Driving Taxis’ headline may have gone but to this day, hundreds of experienced doctors, accountants and engineers are still driving cabs and doing menial part-time jobs to sustain their families and relatives overseas on fickle casual wages. Hundreds more have given up entirely, resigning themselves to a perpetual life in the slow lane.

For Somali-Australians, being black and Muslim and with the additional stigma of coming from one of the world’s most corrupt countries, the chances of finding full-time work – let alone a respectable white-collar job – are arguably the lowest.

When Lindsay Tanner, the Federal member for Melbourne resigned his post as government Finance Minister a year ago, members of Victoria’s African community felt they had lost one of their own. Not only was Tanner a critic of the hardening of Australian policies on asylum-seeker policies, he was also a pro-African ‘champios’ – a regular guest at community events, and a loud advocate for greater training and job opportunities for migrants.

Tanner, however still assists two Melbourne-based projects: a Corporate Leaders’ Network (CLN) scheme – through which 10 high-profile Australian companies have committed to develop training and placement opportunities for African-Australians – and the Horn-Afrik Employment, Training and Advocacy Project, a homespun initiative with 250 migrants from the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia) on its books.

Both projects are aimed at assisting African jobseekers.

Some socials workers say there is an obvious link between the head of migrant families who struggle to find work and children for whom “job satisfaction” is a concept from another planet.

“If we’re losing the fathers, we will lose their sons,” warns Horn-Afrik’s coordinator, Omar Farah. “They will drop out of school, live on the dole, and some will go into crime. If your husband is unemployed, your father is depressed, your parents are talking about going back to Africa – how can you expect that family to be striving to adopt Australian values?”

As a regular advisor to the Victorian Government and the Victoria Police, the genial 51-year-old Farah is the only African-Australian formally employed to find professional jobs for his compatriots. But his raison d’être – that there are plenty of jobs out there, and colour-blind employers with them – has been tested virtually every day of the 23 years he’s called Australia home.

“When I walk down the street in Melbourne the feeling is I’m black, probably involved in crime and certainly un-Australian. When I’m out with my family, we’re seven refugees just arrived from Africa (even though all our kids were born in Melbourne)… Back in Somalia, any adult in the community could discipline me, which led to a feeling of being protected and looked out for. But there’s none of that expectation, that comfort, here.”

Lindsay Tanner, who has become his close personal friend, also sees this lack of “familiarity” as the principal challenge – the ultimate fitting-in quality that only time will provide, just as it did for his own Greek forebears.

“It won’t be long before the majority of Somalis in Australia are born here, maybe another 10 years,” says Tanner. “The real question will be, are those born here having the same opportunities and standard of living and capacity to be part of our society?”

Tanner believes that they will but there are others who are not so sure.

The Rev. John Evans has had a front row seat in the socially-divided suburb of Carlton, where his Church of All Nations backs onto a sprawling housing estate where nearly half the 3,000 residents are African.

“Africans are still not welcome in Lygon Street, 15 years after they first came here,” he says, referring to the gentrified shopping precinct a stone’s throw away. “They’re just so different from other ethnic groups here. It’s part of that fear of the unknown that defines our society.

“It’s not orchestrated, it’s not about hate groups or anything like that. It’s just this unfamiliarity…”

Fear of the unknown has been a recurring theme in dozens of research reports and policy papers produced by academics, lawyers and parliamentary committees on issues of discrimination and social exclusion facing Australia’s 120,000 black Africans. Yet the one thing that nearly everyone in government, academia and the community agrees will make a migrant family feel most at home – a decent full-time job – continues to be withheld by a conspiracy of personal prejudice and professional and political apathy.

Somalis consistently rank as the least employed of any race in Victoria, with statistics placing between 32% and 47% out of work. While Asians and other ‘visibly different’ migrants occupy ever more prominent positions in our hospitals, schools, courtrooms and police stations – places associated with legitimacy and trust – the almost total absence of black faces in such venues speaks volumes about our confidence in Africans’ values and abilities, and perpetuates the myth that they cannot be trusted with such critical roles; that they cannot be trusted to be good Australians.

In February, the University of Western Sydney released the results of a 12-year study on attitudes towards minority groups, which reported that 48% of Australians harbour negative feelings towards Muslims, while Africans topped the mistrusted migrants list at 27%. Although 87% of the 12,500 respondents said they support cultural diversity, study leader Professor Kevin Dunn says he has no doubt that skin colour remains a powerful deterrent to employers – and the divisive remarks of some politicians only fan the flames.

“Integration is a two-way street,” says Dunn. “You have to want to integrate and there has to be a feeling of welcome. In Australia, there’s been far too much debate on whether immigrants are integrating and want to integrate, and not nearly enough on the welcome we’re giving them.”

More than 20 years after Somalis started arriving here in significant numbers, that welcome is still geared towards humanitarian refugees, fresh from Kenya’s refugee camps, without the money, language or tools to begin their new life.

Through a concerted program of housing, education and language support, these people have gradually found their feet in a new and unfamiliar world. It’s a program for which Australians truly can be proud. But for those Somalis who came under the skilled migration program, who gained their credentials in university halls and government offices, who speak perfect English – those who arguably have the most to offer their new home – there remains the problem of securing employment.

In Point Cook on the outer reaches of Melbourne you can find a handful of Somali men gather discussing everything from plans for a new community centre to entertaining ways of teaching the Somali language to children. The subject of their own employment is never far from the conversation. A couple of the men are part-time lecturers or run small businesses; but the majority have never had a full-time job in Australia.

Dr Abdirahman Kulmiye is a newcomer to the group, but his story is all too typical. A highly erudite marine scientist in his late 40s, Kulmiye arrived in Australia in early 2007 with high hopes of landing a professional job. This is a man who should get a job in any country with a coastline – let alone one surrounded by sea. His CV (undoctored, he stresses) includes long periods with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and three years as Chief Technical Adviser at Somalia’s Ministry of Fisheries.

But after dozens of applications for scientific and research postings, and not one letter of reply, a dejected Kulmiye sent a note back to his old colleagues in Africa – and was immediately offered a job by Vétérinaires sans Frontières. Despondent and running low on money, he eventually took up a consultancy with the Swiss NGO.

“The main reason I haven’t been able to get a job in Australia is that employers want to see local work experience before they’ll give you any themselves,” says Kulmiye. “I don’t really understand this endless focus on local experience, especially if you’ve managed international projects at the highest level. Why doesn’t anyone pay any attention to that?”

One businessman who is paying attention is Michael Ullmer, Deputy CEO of National Australia Bank (NAB). After attending a lecture by Lindsay Tanner at Melbourne’s State Library in July 2008 – a moment credited with waking up corporate Australia to the struggle of professional Africans – Ullmer made it his mission to do something to help.

The result was a workplace development program that has provided paid six-month placements to 23 Africans with business and accounting degrees – with another 14 joining the company in March.

Ullmer says his department heads are reporting “overwhelmingly positive” responses to their new African staffers, who bring different approaches and problem-solving skills, not to mention a potentially profitable connection with their own communities. Of 23 candidates to date, 16 have been stayed on at NAB after their placements.

“There are many things that we as an organisation can learn from their commitment and drive,” says Ullmer. “We have a responsibility… to address this issue of underemployment among African-Australians, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist.”

Former IBM Managing Director Glen Boreham also initiated a workplace training scheme that provided paid placements to three African graduates in 2009 – one of whom stayed with the company.

The Corporate Leaders Network, which links socially conscious companies with migrant services providers, established its ‘African-Australian Project’ early in 2009, specifically to help professional Africans into work but, despite some early gains – getting companies to review web recruitment channels that automatically bar those with no Australian experience – convener Leigh Purnell says companies have found it hard to create room for new employees.

“There are limits,” says Purnell, a former Australian Industry Group director. “One thing employers cannot compromise on – and we do not want them to compromise on – is the technical requirements of their jobs.”

Purnell is putting great store in the CLN’s third training workshop in this month, which reserved up to 12 of its 35 places for African graduates, chosen from a database established by the Victorian Government of “African-Australians with qualifications from Australian universities.”

It is limited, however, to candidates who have graduated over the past two years – a fact that disqualifies most older jobseekers and raises the hackles of people like Omar Farah.

“It reminds me of the old slave auctions in America, perhaps without them actually checking their teeth,” says Farah. “If you’re young and well dressed and speak proper English, you may have a chance. But it ignores the older migrants, those who came to Australia with the highest expectations and,10 or 15 years later, still don’t have a decent job. These guys are still being told the same thing: your accent is too thick, your qualification is dodgy, you’re not Australian enough.”

Coroner blames pokies addiction for Katherine Natt's death (ABC News)

From ABC Adelaide

A young mother-of-two killed herself because she could not cope with her poker machine addiction, the South Australian coroner has found.

Casino worker Katherine Natt, 24, took an overdose of painkillers in 2006, fearing she may lose custody of her children because of her gambling addiction.

The coroner had been told the woman started work at the Adelaide Casino at 18 and struggled for four years with her poker machine addiction.

Her father had told the court he understood many employees worked at the casino because it prevented them from gambling there, but many, including his daughter, would still gamble at other venues after work.

Ms Natt accumulated a debt of more than $100,000 and her family never knew.

Coroner Mark Johns said given the the Federal Government was considering measures to help deal with problem gamblers, his only recommendation was that his findings be forwarded on to Canberra.

Outside court, Ms Natt’s mother Christine Matthews said she felt let down by the findings.

“I feel like everybody’s just failed her,” she said.

Senator Nick Xenophon represented the dead woman’s family during the inquest and has long campaigned for tougher gambling laws.

He had also hoped for more from the coroner, including recommendations about the responsibility of gambling venues to their employees and patrons.

“The system has failed Katherine and it’s failed Katherine’s family,” he said.

Senator Xenophon said he believed it was the first death directly linked to poker machines in South Australia.

SkyCity Casino says it provides counselling for staff which goes above and beyond regulations.

SA’s acting Gambling Minister Grace Portolesi said she was saddened by the death.

She said Gambling Minister Tom Koutsantonis would raise the case at the Select Council for Gambling Reform, on Friday in Melbourne.

Read about a big MHS lie

Read about other lies from the poker machine industry

Read the complete archive of poker machine stories by clicking the poker machines at left

The Maryborough Highland Society has made an application to the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR) for Approval of Premises for Gaming at the Old Goods Shed, 64 Kennedy Street, Castlemaine.  The proposal includes a bistro, meeting and function rooms and a gaming lounge with 65 Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs).  There is currently one gaming venue with 30 EGMs in the Shire.

There are two major application processes for this proposal where Council has a role. One is to respond to the planning permit application and the other is to submit a Social and Economic Impact Assessment of the proposal to the VCGR, which the Maryborough Highland Society requires gaming premises approval from. On 8 November, Council resolved to endorse the process to develop a Social and Economic Impact Assessment.

Part of the process to undertake the economic and social impact assessment involved a shire-wide community attitude survey on the proposal. The survey findings indicate a clear majority of respondents (75%) were opposed to the overall development with EGMs. A majority of respondents (71%) say they would not frequent the venue if it was approved. A majority of respondents (79%) say either there are enough pokies in the Shire already or too many.

The results of the Social and Economic Impact Assessment suggest that in its application to the VCGR the Maryborough Highland Society has understated the impact of the proposed gaming venue on the social wellbeing of Castlemaine and the Shire.

Based on the community survey results, residents are opposed to the proposal primarily on the grounds that it includes poker machines. While a majority of residents indicate it will not directly affect their personal wellbeing, this is likely because of the high proportion who say they would not frequent the venue if it were approved.

Council is also currently assessing Planning Application 287/2011 for use and development in association with a restricted place of assembly, sale and consumption of liquor, installation of 65 gaming machines and reduction in the car parking requirements. Council sent advertising instructions to the permit applicant on 23 November 2011.

The MHS has since advised Council that they wish to place the application on hold until after the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR) hearing scheduled for January 2012.

Council lodged the Social and Economic Assessment to the VCGR last week.
Read about a big MHS lie

Read about other lies from the poker machine industry

Read the complete archive of poker machine stories by clicking the problem gambler at left

http://www.gohomeontimeday.org.au/

]]> http://www.castlemaineindependent.org/2011/11/national-home-time-day/feed/ 0 http://www.castlemaineindependent.org/2011/11/rally-pokies/ http://www.castlemaineindependent.org/2011/11/rally-pokies/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:59:07 +0000 andrew http://www.castlemaineindependent.org/?p=27336

Read the complete archive of poker machine stories by clicking the problem gambler at left

Verónica Natividad

CI has been loaning money to workers in poor countries through an organisation called Kiva. Verónica Natividad from Ecuador is our sixteenth loan.

Verónica Natividad is married and has one son. She lives with her husband and one-year-old son in Chillanes, in Bolívar Province.

The “la Florida” communal bank has 12 members and is located in Chillanes Canton five minutes from the office. Veronica makes a living in agriculture, planting corn and beans. She buys and sells in Chillanes every week. She is asking for the loan to buy manure and fertilizer. With the help of this loan, she will improve her products.

Her dream is to be able to provide her son with an education and that he will finish school.

New Dream Mini-Views: Visualizing a Plenitude Economy from Center for a New American Dream on Vimeo.

Ross Blade plugs in

A new joint venture between Blade Electric Vehicles, DLG Battery Limited and IRES Asia Pacific Pty Ltd is bringing 100 new hi-tech jobs to Castlemaine.

Joint venture partners Blade Electric Vehicles Pty Ltd and Chinese-based lithium battery manufacturer DLG Battery Limited have joined with energy systems company IRES Asia Pacific Pty Ltd to create Australia’s first national electric vehicle and renewable energy service and distribution network.

“The Blade DLG joint venture will bring 100 new high-tech jobs to Castlemaine in Central Victoria,” said Ross Blade, the Founder and CEO of Blade.

Steve Carter, Managing Director of IRES, said that the IRES service and distribution network would support the resulting green energy products and in the process create 250 new jobs throughout Australia.

The project will ramp up employment between November 2011 and December 2012.. Jobs include electrical engineers, automotive engineers, CAD designers, assembly workers, sales, support staff and numerous contractors and service providers.

Read the full story.

“Pay inequality is an important issue for all enterprises, large and small, public and private, so we all need to be taking action to reduce the gender pay gap,” Commissioner Broderick said.

The gender pay gap measures the difference between male and female earnings as a percentage of male earnings.

“Some of the key causes of the gender pay gap include the different types of work that women tend to be employed in compared to men, the low value placed on much of that work, the lack of investment in women through training and stereotypical views about women’s abilities and roles,” said Commissioner Broderick. “We need to change this picture because it is unforgiveable that such attitudes continue to exist and to disadvantage women.”

Commissioner Broderick said that the issue of undervaluing the sectors in which women work, such as social work and disability services, lies at the centre of the gender pay gap in Australia.

In handing down its interim decision this year in the equal pay test case brought by the Australian Services Union and others under the new Fair Work Act 2009, Fair Work Australia recognised that, “for employees in the Social and Community Services sector, there was not equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal or comparable value by comparison with state and local government employment”.

“The gender pay gap also affects women’s economic security because women, on average, have less lifetime earnings compared to men and this becomes a serious issue, especially during retirement,” Ms Broderick said. “Statistics have shown that retired men aged 55 and 64 years have around 1.7 times the disposable weekly income of retired women in the same age group.”

The date of Equal Pay Day is symbolic – it represents the extra number of days that women will have to work in order to match the amount earned by men in that financial year.

“Women will have to work 63 extra days to gain the same amount of pay this year, reflecting the 17.2% pay gap compared to male earnings,” said Commissioner Broderick. “This means that today, women still only earn around 83 cents in the male dollar.”

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Castlemaine State Festival

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Harcourt Apple Fest

Bendigo Trust

They claim quarantine measures will be insufficient on apples coming from New Zealand and local orchards could be at risk.

Image and story courtesy of the ABC.

The program, known as STEPS (Skills, Training, Engagement & Practical Support), is now open and was developed in partnership with the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority to ‘create an enduring capacity’ in those communities affected by the 2009 fires.

The STEPS program will contribute towards the development of strong, resilient and cohesive communities, enhancing community capacity to adapt and respond to possible future challenges and emergencies.

Grants from $100 – $30,000 are available for projects that build resilience, create networks and partnerships, and support the development of community leadership.

Application forms and guidelines can be downloaded from the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal’s website: www.frrr.org.au

For more information about this program, contact Joanna Hambling, Emergency Management Coordinator, Mount Alexander Shire Council on 5471 1880.

And according to the University of Melbourne study by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, this statistic could partially account for the gender pay gap that sees women earning less than similarly-qualified men.

The study, using longitudinal data collected over the past 10 years by the Household Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) survey, will be among several presented at the bi-annual HILDA Research Conference to be held at the University over the next two days.

Study Co-Author Associate Professor Roger Wilkins said gender differences are a significant feature of the labour market, especially when it comes to wage gaps.

“While it is widely recognised that occupational and industrial segregation continues to plays an important role in contributing to the gender pay gap in most industrial nations, gender differences in involuntary job loss have received little attention in labour market research.

“Various explanations for the gender pay gap that often favours men have been offered by researchers, including discrimination against women and also compensation of men for other work attributes, such as a lesser degree of flexibility in hours, greater times taken to travel to work, as well as greater health and safety risks.

“But we found that the higher rate of involuntary job loss among men suggests that part of the wage gap may also reflect compensation for lower job security.”

The study shows that women are more inclined to choose jobs in industries where the risks of dismissal are relatively low.

“Women may be more averse to jobs with greater dismissal risks because of differences in the perceived costs and benefits of occupations with less job security,” said Associate Professor Wilkins.

“For example, costs of dismissal may be higher for women if they are more restricted by the distance they can travel for work due to family responsibilities.”

Factors such as age, educational skills, work experience and ethnicity were also considered, and while the study found that while they could affect workplace and employee behaviour – and by extension, the likelihood of job loss overall – they did not account for the higher rates of job loss for men.

The study also investigated the effects personality traits could have on the likelihood of dismissal; extroverts were generally associated with greater probabilities of job loss, while conscientious workers had a much lower probability of job loss. However the study found that personality differences between men and women did not explain the difference in likelihood of job loss.