flawed intern plan by Turnbull
The internship program, however, creates 120,000 new interns, and labels their activities as "unpaid work experience", not employment. In addition, it'll be targeting industries where internships haven't previously been seen, such as motor trades, hospitality and retail. That's not fixing the problem, that's supercharging it on a massive scale: taking the brand of intern and bringing it to your mechanics, your designer stores and your cafes, without clarifying what it actually means. And with it, potentially replacing these jobs – and they are jobs – with interns.
Read more at The Age
SMH letters
Interns almost slavesThe 7-Eleven scandal still stinks and is unresolved, the use of unscrupulous employment contractors by large companies to avoid their obligations festers on and the charity collectors scandal is breaking.
Instead of combating this behaviour, the government seeks to entrench and even subsidise the exploitation of vulnerable workers to the tune of $1000 a time, with a dodgy intern scheme ("All work, no pay: Turnbull's flawed plan for Australia's intern army", October 24). Servitude bordering on slavery is not innovation, Malcolm Turnbull.
Franz Weiss Maroubra