New Zealand chef Andrew Lee slams Australians as ‘lazy’ workers

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A New Zealand chef has slammed ‘lazy’ Australians saying that he would always choose other nationalities when hiring his kitchen staff. 

In a TikTok video viewed over 200,000 times, Adam Lee tells interviewers from New Zealand social media content-makers Altbays that ‘the biggest problem with Australia, is that there are too many Australians’.

The chef said that when he moved to Australia in 2010 he worked in Victoria’s ritzy Portsea Hotel and soon found a poor attitude among the locals.

New Zealand chef Andrew Lee slams Australians as ‘lazy’ workers

New Zealand chef, who has been working in Australia since 2010, does not have a high opinion of the locals’ work ethic

Some TikTok viewers disagreed with Mr Lee's opinions of Australian work habits

Some TikTok viewers disagreed with Mr Lee’s opinions of Australian work habits

‘A lot of the Aussies don’t want to work, especially in the hospitality industry,’ Mr Lee told his hosts. 

Mr Lee said he had worked with another New Zealand chef who shared his opinions.

‘He swore black and blue to his bosses that he was going to fill the place with Kiwis, which is what he did and we ran it for several years,’ he said. 

‘If I could fill a kitchen I would have Kiwis, Brazilians and Argentinians.’

Mr Lee’s opinions quickly divided social media users, with some outright rejecting the claim that Australians were poor workers.

‘Aussie chef here (30 years experience) and this is bulls**t,’ one said.

‘Treat us with respect and pay correctly,’ another TikTok user wrote.

‘Plenty of hard working Australians in the hospitality workforce… shocking thing to say about Australian people. ‘ 

However, some agreed that Australians don’t want to work in hospitality but heaped the blamed on the industry. 

‘Because hospitality barely pays the bills and is tough work,’ one said.

‘Those from overseas think it’s bulls**t too, they’re just doing what they have to do.’ 

However, some were in agreement with Mr Lee.

‘Wow, always been a known thing even when I lived in Aussie 20 years ago Kiwis love the challenge and the life style,’ another viewer wrote. 

Adam, who has worked as a chef in Victoria and the Northern Territory, finds some time to relax

Adam, who has worked as a chef in Victoria and the Northern Territory, finds some time to relax

Others nominated other Australian industries they believed were filled with harder workers from overseas. 

‘Mining industry in WA is 90% Kiwis. Aussies are waiting for the dole,’ one commentator wrote.  

‘Same in warehouses as well,’ another wrote.

One cheeky Australian did not shy away from being labelled lazy.

‘Thanks for paying for my Centrelink. Keep up the hard work,’ they wrote. 

Mr Lee didn’t just bemoan the lazy behaviour of Australians, he thought young people in general were showing little drive.

‘We’ve had a few really, really good ones (young staff) but we have had a lot that just want to come in and punch a ticket and punch out again,’ he said.

‘They are not there to learn, not there to work. They just there to fill the numbers in and fill their pocket with money.

‘The work ethic in the kitchen these days is not a lot and it’s really, really sad.’

He thought social media’s promise of easy money for making a viral video might be an explanation. 

‘Why go to work and sweat your a**e off in a 65 degree kitchen for eight hours when you can go do a dance film it and get paid twice as much?’ he asked.

Mr Lee said there were benefits from working in Australia like wages and cheaper food, milk and petrol.

However, he wasn’t impressed with all of the local produce. 

‘All their fruit tastes watered down, same with all their beer,’ Mr Lee said.

‘They just don’t have the same flavour.’

He also said the grain-fed meat in Australia could be ‘tasteless’.  

Mr Lee is currently working in the tourist resort at King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory, which he called ‘an amazing, amazing piece of landscape’.

He amused his New Zealand interviewers with stories of dodging camels, which he described as a very serious road hazard, while driving long distances in the Outback.

A hiker enjoys the spectacular scenery at Kings Canyon in the remote Ouback of the Northern Territory

A hiker enjoys the spectacular scenery at Kings Canyon in the remote Ouback of the Northern Territory

Two Aboriginal women are seen with alcohol purchases in Alice Springs, with Mr Lee saying police spend most of their time monitoring bottle shops to stop Indigenous bulk buys

Two Aboriginal women are seen with alcohol purchases in Alice Springs, with Mr Lee saying police spend most of their time monitoring bottle shops to stop Indigenous bulk buys

Mr Lee also described some of his interactions with Aboriginals and described the social problems he had observed in the central town of Alice Springs.

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According to Mr Lee there were 127 officers in Alice Springs but ’94’ of them spend all their time at liquor outlets stopping Indigenous people from purchasing any large amounts of alcohol.

‘That’s all they do their job is to sit outside the alcohol shop and check you ID,’ Mr Lee said. 

He said the township was plagued by petty crime, which was committed by Indigenous youth. 

‘They (the police) can’t touch the kids and mostly it is the kids who are doing it,’ Mr Lee said. 

‘If you are walking down the road and you have a shoulder bag you’ve got to hang onto it with both hands or the kids will rip it off you.’

‘If you are walking down the road texting on your phone, they’ll come and hit the phone out of your hand and steal it from you and it’s in broad daylight.’

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