Tongan Ambassador expect initial guest worker problems

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Updated February 27, 2009 17:01:00

Tonga's High Commissioner to Australia believes there will be "some teething problems" with the first of the Pacific Island guest workers but it will be worked out as the scheme gets underway. The 50 Tongan pickers who arrived in North East Victoria last week, are being treated as casual employees, which has alarmed the The South Pacific and Oceanic Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Workers Union who originally negotiated them to be employed full time. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Tupouto'a Lavaka was at Parliament House in Canberra to present a cheque for 100-thousand Australian dollars to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith for the Australian bushfire appeal. He says the donation demonstrated a long and deep relationship with Australia which could be widened through such activities as the guest worker program.

presenter: Michael Cavanagh
Speaker: Tonga's High Commissioner to Australia, Crown Prince Tupouto'a Lavaka.

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