‘People don't want to work': Drakes boss ‘importing' workers because Aussies won't apply

News.com.au

21 hours ago

The head of a major supermarket chain says businesses are being forced to 'import' staff because too many Australians on Centrelink benefits 'don't want to work'.
JP Drake, director of the family-owned Drakes Supermarkets chain, sat down for a wide-ranging interview with former Australian Army soldier Sam Bamford on his 2Worlds Collide Podcast on Thursday, where the pair discussed issues including the cost-of-living crisis, the national debt and immigration pressures.
Drakes, established in 1974, operates more than 60 stores in South Australia and Queensland and employs more than 6000 people.
Mr Drake, who has previously blamed 'the dole' for the company's inability to hire and retain employees, revealed that he was forced to rely on foreign labour to staff his distribution centres.
The outspoken supermarket boss cited the example of Drakes' distribution centre in Adelaide's Edinburgh North.
'That area has a 23 per cent unemployment rate — I'm importing people from Vanuatu because I can't get workers to work in my site,' he said.
'I've got these Vanuatu crew come over, they're unbelievable. Their work ethic is amazing … they act as a family, as a tribe, together, and they work as a team.'
'I bet you they feel blessed as well,' Bamford said.
'Oh, mate, they're loving it,' Mr Drake said. '(Their) English is not the best but, mate, they are smiling, they're happy.'
Mr Drake said it was an industry-wide problem. He said he had recently visited Perfection Fresh, a major supplier of baby cucumbers and tomatoes.
'Walking around, I didn't see a white Australian,' he said.
'I'm not saying people aren't Australian just because they're not white. And they were loving it, too. They get them from Vanuatu, they get them from all [over]. They employ 2000 people and three-quarters of those are imported. Working visas, people loving it, people working their guts out, enjoying life.'
He expressed disbelief at people saying 'we don't have an unemployment problem'.
Australia's unemployment rate fell from 4.3 per cent to 4.2 per cent in July, according to figures released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Employment rose by 25,000 and the number of unemployed fell by 10,000. The growth was driven by a 60,000 increase in full-time workers, offset by a 36,000 fall in part-time employment, while the participation rate remained steady at 67 per cent.
The unemployment data came after the Reserve Bank (RBA) cut the cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.6 per cent, following an easing of inflation in the June quarter — but the RBA has expressed concern at the country's ongoing productivity slump.
'I'm telling you, people don't want to work, and that is the problem,' Mr Drake said.
'At my distribution centre, we've got a gym there, they get a full canteen with a free meal for lunch, all of this stuff, and it's not enough to attract the locals to get a job. To work, to make a difference in the community. You know why? Because we pay enough out on Centrelink and benefits for the people that maybe don't deserve it, and that is the problem.'
Mr Drake said the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), 'which no one has any responsibility of', was only making the problem worse.
The scandal-plagued NDIS, rolled out nationally in 2020, has rapidly blown out to $46.3 billion last financial year and is growing at 10 per cent per year.
Treasury forecasts spending on scheme, now the third largest budget expense, will soon overtake the age pension and defence, as the Labor government scrambles to rein in the growing fiscal black hole.
The latest figures released last week show more than 739,000 participants are now receiving NDIS support, with 80,000 joining in the last 12 months.
'You can literally make up anything to get anything,' Mr Drake said.
'There are people that need benefits, need handouts, I totally understand that, don't get me wrong. But when anyone can get $550 a fortnight, and you have a house load of people and you combine your money together, all of a sudden you don't need to f**king work. And sell a few drugs and happy days.'
According to the latest Department of Home Affairs figures, the number of work visa holders in Australia grew by 34.4 per cent to 110,740 as of 31 March, while the number of visas granted grew 33.2 per cent to 48,350.
India was the top source of visa applications granted, growing 20.7 per cent to 19,510, followed by the Philippines on 14,040 and the UK on 8570.
The largest sponsor industry was healthcare and social assistance, making up 17.9 per cent of applications, followed by accommodation and food services on 13.9 per cent.
AMP chief economist Shane Oliver has previously warned that large numbers of immigrants had been 'absorbed' into taxpayer-funded industries like the NDIS in recent years in an 'artificial' situation now starting to unravel as growth in the so-called 'non-market' sector slows.
Last year, 80 per cent of all new jobs created were either in the public service or taxpayer-funded sectors like healthcare and education.
'If you increase the supply of labour which is what we've done dramatically in the last few years, it can have the effect of depressing productivity,' Dr Oliver said last month.
'So what's happened is we've pumped a lot of people into the economy, that's pushed up employment numbers to some degree but also pushed up hours worked, but we haven't seen the commensurate rise in GDP.'
Despite his reliance on foreign workers, Mr Drake agreed with some of Bamford's criticisms of immigration.
Bamford, who served in Afghanistan in 2012, last week called for a 'freedom rally' over Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest 'mass unchecked immigration', foreign aid spending and the homelessness crisis, in response to the massive pro-Palestine rally that drew an estimated 90,000 people.
'No one will [speak] up against immigration,' he told Mr Drake.
'It's like the first week in parliament, you go in there and they're all arguing over Welcome to Country when we have $900 billion in debt. We have a natural resource sector that doesn't get taxed. We have mass immigration. We have all these issues in our society. And yet the people running the country are arguing over … little problems that just don't get us anywhere as a society. Fix these big overarching things first, then we can argue what's the definition of a female.'
Mr Drake said he was 'all for people coming into this country … for people coming and enjoying our multiculturalism'.
'The thing I'm getting stuck up on and I think Palestine stuff highlights it … I don't agree with how we're seeing things play out,' he said.
He suggested immigration was also playing a role in Victoria's ongoing violent crime crisis.
'Everyone wants to get the f**k out of dodge and get the f**k out of Victoria,' he said.
'If you've got a child going around with a machete and doing anything, they need to be addressed accordingly as an adult. If these offenders are not from this country and brought in as immigrants — go home. Send people back where they came from if they are breaking the f**king laws. I don't think it's too hard to do. I think people are starting to wake up to it.'
News.com.au has contacted Mr Drake for comment.
It comes as immigration data released by the ABS on Thursday showed net permanent and long-term arrivals (NPLT) for the year to June 30 reached 279,460 — the highest on record, exceeding the previous record in 2024.
In the full financial year there were 457,560 arrivals, the second highest on record.
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) said the federal budget's FY25 forecast for net overseas migration (NOM) of 335,000 had been exceeded by 37 per cent, or 122,560 people. NPLT and NOM are different but closely related measures.
'Every single day, Australia is now taking in 1544 new people,' 2GB host Ben Fordham said on Monday.
'That's the equivalent of five fully loaded Boeing 787 Dreamliners, day after day, week after week … At this pace, in just three years we will add 1.4 million people, around the population of Adelaide. They're coming to a country where citizens are already struggling to find somewhere to live.'
Meanwhile, controversy continues to swirl around nationwide anti-immigration protests planned for August 31, which have police in capital cities on alert.
Over the weekend it was revealed that one of the co-ordinators is Hugo Lennon, who goes by the online persona 'Auspill'.
'The majority of Australians want to see the end of mass immigration,' Lennon said in a video.
'The truth is, Australians have been ignored on immigration for a long time and that's gonna come to an end because on the 31st Australians will voice this majority opinion.'
The Labor government has condemned the planned protests as racist.
'Multiculturalism is an integral and valued part of our national identity,' Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly told NewsWire on Friday.
'We stand with all Australians, no matter where they were born, against those who seek to divide us and who seek to intimidate migrant communities. We will not be intimidated. This brand of far-right activism grounded in racism and ethnocentrism has no place in modern Australia.'
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the 'Rally For Australia' was un-Australian.
'There is no place in our country for people who seek to divide and undermine our social cohesion,' he said.
'We stand with modern Australia against these rallies — nothing could be less Australian.'