By Shiva Neupane (Melbourne, Australia)
It is extremely saddening to see the government’s lack of moral compass to identify the bedrock of humanity when it comes to treat the workers impartially in every nook and cranny of Australia. Most of the overseas skilled workers’ have so much pent up frustrations owing to dereliction of moral duty on the part of this self-centred government in this difficult time.
The overseas workers did not get their visas at the mercy of Australian government. They have got their skilled visas because the government did not see the sufficient number of Australian workers to support the industry or to fill the skill gaps in their soil.
The COVID 19 had caused the erosion of financial landscape, which then had done disservice to many temporary visa holders in a myriad of ways for example psychologically, mentally, and emotionally. The government’s lack of moral duty even exacerbated their situation at large.
Had they not been jetted off to Australia with their great deal of expertise they could have been in other parts of the compassionate and immigration friendly country like Canada where the government have taken the tax payers’ feelings at their heart without being judgemental about who grew or flew there when it comes to show the generosity?
The only reason why most of the skilled workers have chosen to come to Australia was because they thought Australia is a fair nation in many respects for all the human souls who have poured into this country. But sadly most of the overseas workers do not feel invited in here to see this heartless government’s self-serving nature.
It is glaringly obvious that government has shown its real face and cheap behaviour by not taking care of those skilled migrants’ workers whose visas had been once granted to fill the national skills gaps. Now putting them on the verge of financial hardship does not justify practically the ethical standards on how the employment discrimination acts have been practiced nor the fair dinkum or fair go.
This kind of self-centred polices do not make Australia’s image as immaculate as it should be in a global prospective. And what is more farcical is that Australia’s willingness to join the global push to make China pay the compensation for the global damage when it hesitates at home to learn to compensate those skilled workers who fell under the crack. And expecting compensation and fair investigation of virus that was originated from China by not helping those disadvantaged segment of people inside their own country is nothing other than Australia’s ethical double standard.
What is also more farcical about 130 billion stimulus package is that this billions dollars have been poured in to Australian businesses to bring them back on their feet. How can it fit the bill for the logical reasoning to bring the Australian businesses back to normalcy by injecting funds if these overseas skilled workers are deprived of this unemployment benefits. How it is morally justifiable to not pay them the unemployment benefits when they have played an instrumental role to help grow the industry in a tremendous scale.
A legitimate government should treat decently all tax payers who have made a great commitment to build a nation. On that note, overseas skilled workers have contributed this country tremendously and which is why they have been given sponsorship visas to fill the skill shortage gaps that aren’t filled by locals. And now where is a moral conscientiousness of a government to pinpointing the differences in how the contributions that the overseas workers have made are different from the contributions made by Australians.
Shiva Neupane, is the author of “In the Pursuit of Utopian Life in Australia”, Falang English Dictionary, The Elixir of My Voice, Falang Food Dictionary, and My Voice. He can be contacted for feedback at: falang_socialwelfare@yahoo.com