Dear Editor – With reference to a letter to editor by John Manunue of Kirakira regarding Seasonal worker scheme in your Friday 11 March 2016 issue.
The Labour Mobility Unit (LMU) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & External Trade wishes to inform Mr.Manunue that the list that published in the media was for the Australia Seasonal Program (SWP) and not the New Zealand RSE.
That list was handpicked by an Approved Employer from Australia.
This is direct recruitment which the LMU only facilitates.
In fact, the employer who is not a Solomon Islander started with few of her good friends from Solomon Islands to prove to Australian farmers that Solomon Islanders are hardworking, honest, trust worthy and a good source of reliable workforce.
That paid off to which the employer is under taking her own interview starting Saturday 11th March on the list of workers which LMU released and published in the media with a much bigger number.
The LMU has no say on who is going to be picked to go and work in Australia.
The LMU acknowledges Mr.Manunue call for promotion of recruitment to the provincial level.
On this note the LMU want to clarify that for the New Zealand RSE, we have local agents who do the recruitments whilst for the Australian SWP, we used to have local agents that do the recruitments, however could not manage to penetrate the market.
The LMU is keen on improving our number of workers to Australia and therefore have worked on priority areas to be strengthened especially on our capacity to implement the recently signed MoU which further broadens the scope of what areas we can send our workers.
The LMU office wishes to inform the public that anyone with queries on labour mobility issues can call in at the Melanesian Pacific Haus building, Town Ground during working days or call telephone number 21250.
Labour Mobility Unit
Ministry Of Foreign Affairs and External Trade
