Austrailian Finance Jobs Going Offshore

Austrailian Finance Jobs Going Offshore	25 Oct 2006
MARK COLVIN: No amount of money for reskilling will stop the trend among the nation's big banks to send jobs overseas. As with the manufacturing sector, the banks say some work is better done overseas and should simply be kissed goodbye. The Finance Sector Union is calling for the Government to have a good look at the industry, with an aim to developing policies that keep the jobs here. Emma Alberici reports. EMMA ALBERICI: While the Federal Government's busy handing out $3,000 cheques to people wanting new skills, the Finance Sector Union is asking where the jobs will be once they come out the other end? PAUL SCHRODER: It's one thing to give people $3,000 of taxpayers' money, the most important thing though is to identify where the jobs and skills will be in Australia for people to go into. We are at a crisis point here where our industry could end up with very meaningful, skilled jobs being sent offshore. The Prime Minister would be much better, much better off focusing on where the future of meaningful jobs are going to be in the finance industry. EMMA ALBERICI: Paul Schroder is the Union's National Secretary. He's concerned about recent announcements from the ANZ, Westpac, the National and St George, that certain operations will soon be done offshore. The finance sector represents 46 per cent of the companies listed on the stock market and employs close to 300,000 Australians. Global accounting firm, Deloitte's, says as many as 60,000 of them are vulnerable to a move offshore. Even more alarming are statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD, claiming 80 per cent of finance related jobs could be done in another country. The Finance Sector Union's Paul Schroder. PAUL SCHRODER: If you send these meaningful jobs like IT, like other roles in finance, to China or to India, just like ANZ does, you send the workforce there, you skill the workforce there and you lose the workforce in Australia. The danger here is it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You send the work away, you train a different workforce, you lose the skills domestically and then you use that as the excuse for not employing Australian workers into the future.