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Émile Vernon ..Springtime

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"NO AUSSIES or Europeans wanted. That’s the end message of an advertisement posted to a social media job search page looking for strawberry pickers in Queensland. The controversial post has outraged Bundaberg jobseekers who say they are struggling to get work or are being turned away in preference of foreign workers. Local farms say there are a few strawberry farms in the regional town being run by Asian families who only hire workers from those countries.
The original post was shared to the Bundaberg Job Vacancies Site on Facebook and while it has since been deleted and clarified, it had included a line at the end that specified only Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese people were wanted for the farm.
While it is still not clear which farm the post refers to, others say rumours about Asian only workers have been rife in the town for years.
The original post said workers could “get a lot of money” because this season’s crop would be good, requiring picking six days a week for six to 10 hours.
Locals slammed the ad saying it was incredibly racist.
“I don’t believe that it was a misunderstanding, as you clearly stated you wouldn’t let Australians apply … and then only changed it when everyone got angry,” said one woman.
Another man said the issue had been a problem for years.
“I was on a farm out at Emerald years ago, owned by a Filipino, run by Chileans with 500 workers, 300 Indians, 190 Koreans and only 10 of us Aussies,” he said.
“Some workers were not even making $5 for a day’s work. This has been going on for years, what a disgrace.”
One local claimed the town was short almost 5000 jobs and people couldn’t get jobs that were available because they were taken by backpackers.
“Some local Asian owned/managed farms and labour hire companies have been telling non Asian locals this for years when they were looking for work,” they said.
“Racial discrimination is alive and well and is multidirectional.”
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