Confused

Not the ones that worked outside of their home state and have returned home and had to go into isolation.

How can you be picking and choosing "essential" . If essential aren't you returning to the essential work you were doing, it is still essential isn't it. If not then not essential. I am now confused as to what constitutes essential

The industry it is in dictates its clasification.
I co u ld have remained at work in WA if i wanted to stay there till this situation settles but could run the risk of never seeing some of my family again or any of them if i were to fall to the virus. I was given the choice and chose to be in the same state as my family.
And yes I will be returning to the same work I was doing just in my home state.

"Aren't all essential workers working right now? That is the meaning of essential I thought."


Our beloved PM said those words Exactly... Every Job is Essential right now....

That's what he said..

I give up.

Hi Queensland camper
I guess if you think your activities are reasonable, and you can convince any policeman who asks that what you are doing is reasonable, then you'll be OK.

We all have to make some decisions, and it's up to each one of us to find out and act accordingly.
Hope you find work real soon.

Cheers
Jim

Qldcamper - The restrictions are all about preventing the spread and transmission of the virus, so even if you're working, your employer will have instigated a lot of measures to prevent the virus spreading.

That means, social distancing of 1.5M between people, no group gatherings, 4 sq m person when in a building of any kind, limits to the numbers of people inside any building at the one time, and a severe reduction of any kind of social contact, unless it's people you normally live with.

Going to the beach is not forbidden, it is merely recommended that you minimise unnecessary travel and movement and personal contact. Practise the above measures on a beach, you'll be O.K.

I trust you find work soon, essential services still have to keep operating, thanks for your work when you do find it - and remember not to grumble, when you've got a job and a full income, because a lot of people haven't right about now, and the future for them looks bleak, particularly if they have been employed in aviation or tourism industries.

Cheers, Ron.

Surfing is permitted as it classified as 'reasonable' because you are allowed to leave your home to exercise which is said to be good for your physical health and mental well being.
I doubt anyone can be classified as 'essential' if they are 'between jobs'.
Also depending on which of the WA 9 regions you are in, you may not be able to travel into the next region, unless you have an exemption, which may prevent you getting to the WA/SA or WA/NT border which closes at 11:59pm tonight. If you can get to SA I suspect you will have to self isolate for a further 14 days. Not sure what the NT rules are if you can get there. As others have said each jurisdictions website has the information you require.

No idea what beach you want to drive on, but places like Bribie and Double Island has been closed currently. I got an email from QPWS saying my vehicle permit for Bribie was to be refunded (I needed to log into my QPWS account and apply for the refund) it mentioned special restrictions in place for Fraser and Straddie and I'd assume any other Qld Parks beach would be the same currently.t

In QLD, 470 recreation places and 4WD trails have been closed. This includes all Parks, Forests and Camping areas.

These are areas where high concentrations of people have previously been gathering.

All the information you need for QLD is in the link below. It appears many beaches in QLD are now closed.

Parks & Forests QLD

I can understand the confusion, because in the following camping advice link, it states, "4WD trails, mountain bike trails, walking tracks and trails (excluding overnight hiking tracks), bushwalks and national park coastal walks, remain open."

Camping closures - QLD

So, I guess this means if you can find a little-used 4WD trail in "your local area", you're right to go 4WD-ing.
Seems odd to me, the way they have laid these instructions out.

Cheers, Ron.

Strange how peoples minds invent stuff or they just assume things.
At no stage did i say that i wanted to drive ON a beach, nor did I say that I am unemployed, just in Isolation after returning from WA, which means that I am no longer in WA so the rules there are irrelivant.
I will return to work in QLD when out of isolation just at a different site not that that is anyones business other than mine.

In your initial post you said "I am in the essential worker bracket and am waiting for clearance to find work in QLD now."
I would read that as "unemployed". Not making any judgement at all, just pointing out that it was a reasonable conclusion.

Cheers
Jim

Geez take a chill pill Qld Camper, rereading your original post I see I misread what you posted....no need to get your knickers in a twist over it. I didn't invent anything or assume anything, I simply misread what you wrote....wow some people are touchy at the moment.

/|\ Ditto to above. "Waiting for clearance to find work", indicated you were unemployed, to me.

Dictionary definition of "to find", means to "discover by searching".

Cheers, Ron.

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Maybe not so "reasonable" Jim. There are many people who are engaged as contractors etc who are employed for a specific term, especially in the construction and maintenance industries. Following the completion of each project they need to obtain further engagement on another project. Between projects they are not classified as unemployed, merely between engagements. Often they are structured as being self-employed and registered as a business.
It is possible that qldcamper is in such a position.

Hit the nail on the head Allan, not self employed but work for an Australia wide contracting company usually in Wa till now.
To anyone else that got offended it was not my intention to offend anyone but most times I post on this forum I end up defending myself for stuff I never put so rather than going off when you get corrected try appologising rather than slinging abuse back.

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Qldcamper, I understood because my son is a technician who works on contract mostly in the oil & gas industry on shutdown maintenance. His work comes in contract 'bites' of a few weeks at a time and he is required to travel all over, from the East Coast to as far as Barrow Island. But "in-between" he cannot be considered as unemployed. I guess many people have never encountered this form of "employment" so do not understand.... but that does not make their incomprehension your fault. It may have been nicer if you had been asked for clarification of your situation, but this is "Judgment Forum"!
I also spent years working on term contract on construction projects in the same industry with breaks between contracts but that did not make me unemployed, merely without current contract.

"and remember not to grumble"
Slipped that one in very nicely Ron. Well done.
Dave.

Unbelievable. IAmNot UNEMPLOYED.
Please read the other posts before responding.

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Is the butcher with no customers in the shop unemployed?

My apologies, i thought you said you were looking for work. And i said "it sounds like you don't have a job"
Ok I checked the other posts, Let me know if i have it right now.

So you are a Queenslander and you have been working in WA and decided to come home and you have had to isolate for 14 days. So if you are looking for a job in QLD and you are not "unemployed" you still must have your job in WA. I see your problem , WA is 4000ks away.. i'm confused too. Good luck with all of that..
Michael

me too ,really don't even know why people are responding to a question completely irrelevant to the forum,especially when he gives scant detail and there are heaps of sites that are more relevant....

I think he's been working for ASIO or similar, Could be an 'Essential Service'. If he's left his job in WA and looking for a Job in QLD, sounds like Unemployed to me or maybe he likes to think of it as "Between Jobs". Anyway i was trying to be helpful, he can apply for Benefits. I think he's been in WA too long, the sun has got to him. Michael

What a pack of complete wankers

Totally agree Michael and if the goverment can find a way they will raid our super schemes to repay the loans for all the hand outs their dealing out.

Remember the good old days when the Goverment was tearing Telcom Australia apart to privatise it and all the staff that got the flick with only their own super payouts no one worried about them. Working as a contractor for many years if the company went bust I was out of a job and no pay. Now everyone gets support payments from the goverment or bonus payments which I agree is good to keep the economy ticking over but it always seems to end up costing the self funded retiree money and they get nothing back. Full charge for medicines, full charge for medical, none of the little bonus package the unemployed, low income earns or normal pensioners recieve. Yes they probably recieve more than them as a pension but they have also worked bloody hard to be in a position to enable that and the goverment did very well out of that also. I'm surprised they are allowed to receive home delivery of groceries at the moment, the only benefit so far, they probably couldn't find an easy way to stop it. The goverment would be better off if they did, more elderly would then possibly die from corona virus picking up their groceries, children would then inherit and goverment stands a better chance of getting their hands on some of that elusive super pool they drool over.

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Yes HKB, it's a bugger living in this 3rd World country isn't it?

I find it ironic that the capitalist, privatisation, stop the boats champions didn't stop the boats full of well off white people, and have to turn into the ultimate socialists to try and protect their economic house of cards.

Hi Michael, the cruise ships is a fiasco , state and feds both responsible but a few cards were missing from the deck before the virus came along. The world economy and ours was hanging by a thread, the virus just bought the inevitable collapse forward. Michael

People, you have strayed way off topic. We all need to focus now - Qldcamper needs our help to find a job. Or have I misread something?

Just yanking your chain mate. Getting back to your question. When you come out of isolation you won't notice much difference. In a nutshell you can't go out unless you absolutely need to. I think in Qld you can have a surf - not so here in Vic. You can possibly play golf too but again not here in Vic. These are both considered exercise up there. I think you can also vote in an election if there is one - now that one has me coughing.
Bottom line is - don't get this thing. It is some mongrel of a bug it seems if you get the full dose. Oh and good luck with your job search !!!!!!

As for the definition of unemployed, I worked for many years doing contract work as consultant/technical specialist etc. My partner same as an EA for many goverment heads. We looked at it as if we were getting paid we were employed, if we were looking for our next contract role and not getting paid we were unemployed. My son is a sale person in an electronics supplier, he at present is deemed "an essential worker" if he gets laid off tomorrow he is unemployed. The goverment also considered between contracts to be unemployed and at times I have claimed job search etc to get back some of the taxes I paid.

Might be nicer to say to others that I'm between contracts rather than I'm unemployed at the moment.
I wonder if all those laid off in the last mining down turn just said they were between contracts till they found another job instead of claiming job search etc?

An essential worker, in my days was someone working in a service that was essential, ie Telecommunications, the electrical authority, the water board, police etc. Seems these days an essential service is any job where if the employee gets laid off he can claim unemployment which the goverment does not want.

LOL,
QLD is too slow to react. Your southern states are where we should be but the governments are still putting money before people, carefully structuring the relief payments so people such as me have no choice but to keep working in an industry that has nothing to do with health but a lot to do with most of the countrys income. We have to transit on busses and airports and mix with people from all over the state at work then come home on breaks.
Apparently when it envolves hundreds of millions of dollars it is ok to spread the virus ank kill a few hundred of us.

Reality is the goverment does not want to completely kill the spread, if they did where would we be, would be like going back to the early days in Tasmania when it was a prison colony. The intention is to control the rate of spread until everyone has been infected at a rate the hospitals etc can handle or until some form of treatment comes along. This could take years and it appears the goverment sees some population loses as necessary to keep the rich rich and the economy ticking over.

It becomes a balancing act, how many looses would occur in a server recession against the loses to the virus. As the virus seems targeted at the aged and the sick the goverment is in a win win situation with the virus, kill of all the sick, less burden on the welfare system, kill off the aged same thing reduce aged pension costs. If you can kill off the self funded retires it gets their wealth out of the super schemes and back into the economy and frees up housing, caravans, Rv's etc.

Just have to keep the loses of your able body works to a minimum to keep the economy ticking over so it can fire up again after the cull.

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HKB, Yair, right, sure. I thought it was something like that.

May not have been the intention but that is the way it is likely to play out.

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HKB,

The definition of 'contractor' or 'employee' is well defined by the Australian Taxation Office.
In essence, a contractor is engaged to carry out a specific task and must hold an ABN registration. The contractor must pay taxation directly to the ATO and submit business returns as well as a personal return.
An employee is engaged to work specific hours under an employment definition and is paid a wage with the employer deducting and remitting the taxation to the ATO. He submits a personal return.
A contractor is seen as a sole trader conducting a business and is not entitled to unemployment benefit whilst they are seeking engagements exclusively as a sole trader.

There may well be people operating outside those definitions but they would be liable to punative action by the ATO.
I found it necessary to establish as a Pty Ltd company to safely operate as a contracting sole trader in order to satisfy the ATO.

Should get rid of quite a few politicians too. Hope they are the ones that think like that.

Allan that is not the case at all, I worked for many years as a contractor to several multi national companies, my partner to several goverment agencies. Neither of us had an ABN registrations in those roles. We were contracted through agencies, you are presented with a short term contract to work for the specific employer through the agency. The agency carries the ABN and insurance responsibilities etc. Collects the payments from the company involved and takes their cut. Deducts tax and also handles any other aspects such as work vehicle, superanuation payments etc.

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HKB,

If you worked via an agency you were effectively an employee of that agency who then contracted your labour to the client company. As you have expressed, the agency has the ABN, provides insurance, deducts tax and super. Clearly you are an employee. Even though the employment is covered by a contract agreement, you are an employee as far as the ATO and Centrelink are concerned. You are not a contractor operating your own business.

Here is the ATO page on Employee v Contractor.

For 10 years I not only had to work under these rules, I also had to administer them in project managing other contractors working on construction projects. It was my job and needed to be done right or get into big strife with both the ATO and the major companies that I provided my services to. And because I know the rules, I did not get into such strife!

Lets forget about legal definitions of irelivant stuff that nobody really gives a toss about.
Put in some thought on what we are going to do if North Korea takes advantage of America's weakened state and pushes the big mushroom shaped button.

My contract was with the company I worked for not the agency, an employment based contracting arrangement.

But yes qldcamper who cares, I do appreciated your circumstances it is a difficult time for all, my partners son works on a mine site in the NT, his partner is in early stages of pregnancy in QLD. Difficult times for all.

QLD/ExWA Camper, The USA doesnt have a weakened Military state. If North Korea was to do anything to harm America, after 48 hours, the South Koreans can just call themselves Korea. Not only that, they will have great view to the North.

Might even see it from here.

I dare say.

The US could not prevail in the 50s, they could not prevail in Vietnam, they could not prevail in Afghanistan and arguably have not completely prevail in Iraq - what makes you think they could succeed in a new Korean War with China and Russia being North Korean allies.

Nope - not gonna happen despite the rhetoric.

HKB,
FIFO work it hard on young families at the best of times. Dont know about NT sites but they started to double the length of the rosters in WA just as I was leaving so 4/2. Ive only done one 4 week roster for 6 months, and they are hard.
It isnt the time away that is hard now, it is the distance if all flights are grounded while your away it would be a hard trip home, and with more flight crew testing positive that might not be far off.
I feel for them as up to now the government wont help, just force him to keep working.

oh for crying out loud ,last year on a cruise ship to Port Douglas and back, the crew and even the captain don't see family for 6 months and hardly leave the ship and paid a pittance compared to these fifo workers here , in fact the worker i was talking to whose 3 month old daughter was being looked after by her parents while she was away , sending money back to help support her daughter, still thought she was happy to have a job.

sjp

Have you worked as a FIFO worker or talking from your extensive experience as and observer? Might be interesting to see how you would cope being not able to see your family for 6 months at a time, then again it appears you would be happy to.

I like most used to think what a joke our prison system is, they have TV, entertainment, Gyms
etc, only thing thy are really deprived of is their freedom and that's not a big deal is it. They can
see visitors often etc.

Funny now sitting here during my self imposed isolation going batting not being able to go and do
what I like when I like I have changed my mind a bit.

I have also been on cruisers, a lot of the crew come from places where life is very difficult ie their family would be living in poverty if they weren't sending money home so yes they are happy to work on the ship and forgo seeing their family while usually being treated badly by passengers who want to make the most of their holiday time.

I have also worked overseas for 6 months at a time in places such as Paris living out of Hotels and can tell you that the location and living conditions and big salary don't make up for not being able to see your family and friends for 6 months at a time, they make it tolerable.

oh really ,well no, iam just talking off the top of my head by saying how fifo are paid very well for their chosen profession ,but if asked to do a bit more ...can't be bothered except to say that i was born in one of those countries that you worked to survive and the longer you worked the better you survived ,simple really.