Despite fewer potential workers being lured into the mining industry, many farmers around Australia are still struggling to attract both the skilled and unskilled labour they need.
The Federal Government has reacted to the issue by freeing up some restrictions on guest workers from South Pacific countries to fill harvest season jobs in the horticulture, cane and cotton sectors.
“Due to high demand for employees in the agriculture sector and difficulties filling positions with Australian workers, we have increased access for overseas workers by removing the arbitrary caps on other sectors put in place by the previous government,” said Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop. “These changes will allow Australian businesses to better meet the demand for seasonal workers, while also providing valuable economic opportunities for more workers from the Pacific and Timor-Leste.”
Total places under the program will remain at 3250 this financial year, and will increase to 4250 in 2015-16.
While the changes do not actually lift the seasonal workers program cap for this year, they do allow different industries greater flexibility to employ more help within that quota.
But it seems grey nomads will still be in strong demand.
“Grey nomads and backpackers have traditionally been a common feature of the seasonal labour pool for fruit growers, but now they’re increasingly helping fill the labour gap in broadacre cropping areas, too,” Tractor and Machinery Association executive director, Richard Lewis, told the Farm Weekly newspaper. “There are plenty of stories across the industry about the value of temporary workers from overseas – unskilled and skilled – filling jobs on farms or with machinery dealers and harvest contractors.”
It seems that even regions squeezed hard by recent drought seasons can’t get enough machinery mechanics and light engineering skills to meet current demands, let alone cope with a bumper year.
Farm Weekly reports that wages within the agricultural sector have also been rising to reflect the difficulty that farmers are having in attracting workers.
* Have you been able to find work in agriculture to help fund your travels? Is it easy to find work? Is it something you would recommend to other grey nomads hoping to boost their on-the-road finances? Comment below.
Re your article on Grey Nomads working on Aussie farms, our recent experience here in Western Australia is that a lot of farmers and fruit growers are trying to get Woofers and foreign travellers ( with the promise of signing off their 2nd year visa if they work for 6 months) to work for nothing apart fron the provision of accommodation and in some cases food. They will only pay for work when these avenues are exhausted. The Government should be investigating these operators and close these loopholes which are being exploited in many cases, this would open up many more opportunities paid work for travellers.
Totally agree.
I have been applying for work on Aussie farms and have yet to receive a reply. Seems like they dont want to pay for us grey nomads any more.
I have applied for harvest work through Labour Hire adverts on the harvest trail and received no response. The usual, ” Aussies don’t want to work” mantra is a furphy. Farmers want people they don’t have to pay or else they will charge a fortune for substandard accommodation if they have to pay. The whole we have to import foreign workers is a total scam.
we all know, cockies want you to work for nothing
and that’s the truth of it
only want the cheap overseas people so they can pay them wat they a few dollars a hour etc the visa thing is a joke
I fully agree with you Neil McCormack and Ralph. We are leaving Stanthorpe tomorrow for the same reason. I would also like to suggest that if Australian farms want us to buy their products instead of imports they need to provide jobs for Australian workers.