>According to Ms Tsymay, they were tasked with building websites and doing other unsupervised work.
>“What we’re doing should be paid. We’re not really assisting an employee, we’re doing an entire project, pretty much starting a new business. It’s a lot of website design work, we have to design the whole website ourselves, do all of the market research, it’s just so much work.”
>She said Mr Habib promised a job at the end of the three months for “only the best candidates who I’ve seen the best performance from”.
>Ms Tsymay said she “honestly didn’t know that you have to be paid for certain work” until she described what she was doing during a job interview.
>Mr Habib denied exploiting anyone or benefiting from their work. “We wanted to create real-live examples, commercial ideas, so if I don’t hire you your potential employers can see your idea launched.”
>Mr Habib, who came to Australia from Pakistan in 2014, said he started the internship program to give something back to the community and help tackle youth unemployment.
>“It’s for their own good. If they think I’m exploiting them I should draw a line, let them know it’s not a good way to pay someone back who is giving you a favour,” Mr Habib said.
>“I’ll put a hold on this program. I don’t have any incentive to give Australians the job if they don’t appreciate it. These Aussies would rather work in a warehouse, a bar, a restaurant, or a Bunnings than do hard work, learn some skills and do some unpaid internships to advance their career.”
>He said now he would simply send the jobs offshore. “I was getting it done five times cheaper in India, Pakistan, the Philippines, I’ll do the same now,” he said.
