Unscrupulous employers in Sydney have been exposed as cheating Irish backpackers with unpaid ‘trial work’.
Though the practise is illegal, dodgy employers are taking advantage of young people who are desperate for work.
Bosses send the worker, often in Australia on a Working Holiday visa, out on a day’s work as, for instance, a charity collector.
Then, at [...]

Diarmuid Kelly :: Chemical Engineer
When and why did you first come to Australia and what do you do here?
I got here in 2005 via south-east Asia and New Zealand and I’m a chemical engineer project manager with CSL in Melbourne.
What qualifications did you have and how did you find the process of having those recognised?
I [...]

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has claimed that there is a current shortage of 100,000 workers in the Australian agricultural sector.
The organisation has declared that the nation’s “economic engine room is in danger of stalling because the supply of labour cannot meet surging demand”.
In news that will be of interest to the rising ranks of [...]

James Kirby :: Journalist
When and why did you first come to Australia and what do you do here?
I came in 1987. At the time there was a huge amount of people coming here. A bit like today. I loved it straight away. I’m the managing editor of Business Spectator, which is a business news [...]

Darren Fitzharris :: Personal Trainer
When and why did you first come to Australia?
I was here in 2001-02 for a year on a holiday visa and I loved it and always wanted to come back for the good weather. So I moved out here in 2006 with my girlfriend, Edel.
What exactly do you do here?
I’ve [...]

Leanne Cunningham :: Hairdresser
When and why did you first come to Australia?
I first came in 2003 to do a year’s backpacking. After going back to Ireland for a while I moved back to Australia and got a job in Sydney and after a week they asked me if I wanted to be sponsored for an [...]

Kenny Dowling and Anne Marie Flattery had not intended to work on a two million-acre farm in rural Australia, but that’s what happened.
Kenny, 24, who is from Athlone, Co Westmeath, and his girlfriend Anne Marie, 25, from Ballymahon, arrived in Australia in early 2009 and saw a ‘help wanted’ ad for station hands on the [...]

A major drop in applications for junior doctor posts in Ireland is being blamed in part on an exodus to Australia.
Internal Health Service Executive (HSE) documents show that applications for Non-Consultant Hospital Doctor (NCHD – the official name for junior doctors) posts to be filled by January 2010 have fallen by more than half at [...]

Hi John, I’m off to New Zealand for a year having been in Oz on working holiday visas for two years. I worked here for a year as a nurse assistant/care orderly, similar to my work in Ireland. I asked my work agency about sponsorship. They said my job wasn’t on the skilled list so [...]

by Pádraig Collins
QUEENSLAND is once again proving to be a fertile jobs market after a recent boost in economic activity there.
Though unemployment in the sunshine state is still slightly above the national average, it is heading in the right direction and dropped from 6.3 to six per cent in October.
Cavanman Micheal Brides, 23, first arrived [...]