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Is a short-term work-visa the solution?
"If suitable Australian workers were ready to fill the available jobs, they would be employed to do so, particularly where it costs $20,000 extra to bring someone on a 457 visa," lobby group Master Builders Australia has reportedly told the independent panel reviewing the 457 temporary-visa scheme. Joining the agriculture industry bodies, the MBA has made calls for the introduction of a new short-term visa with lower language and salary thresholds particularly for short-term projects, saying labour supply cannot be guaranteed nationwide.
Farm Weekly has reported that the National Farmers' Federation is interested in using the short-term visas to hire foreign dairy operators, artificial inseminators and livestock handlers. Commercial builders want to hire semi-skilled workers with basic English and without having to advertise locally to prove vacancies cannot be filled by Australian workers.
The proposals were made to an ¬independent panel reviewing the 457 temporary-visa scheme.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) remain opposed to this and wants the tighter rules introduce by the Labour government maintained. ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said, “At a time when unemployment is at the highest levels in 10 years and youth unemployment is catastrophically high, and there have been a series of major job losses across the country, we must do all we can to provide opportunities to local workers,"
However, Master Builders say that the industry needed to be able to fill skills gaps where Australians were not available, lacked the skills or were unwilling to work – such as on remote projects.
The 457 visas should, therefore, cover semi-skilled workers including concreters, structural steel workers and people who operate heavy equipment, Master Builders said adding that, a shorter-term visa with "lighter-touch regulatory requirements and faster processing than the current 457 visa" should be introduced. They say this visa, which could be limited to a year, would enable employers to hire foreign workers for specific construction phases, which typically run for periods up to 10 months
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Absolutely right!
Long before I became an RMA I used to work in agriculture as a consultant. Most of Australia's fruit and vegetables is picked by backpackers. In towns like Bundaberg it's the backpacker hostels who provide most of the picking labour. I've seen entire crops rotting in the paddock because the backpackers who had headed off to Airlie Beach hadn't drunk away the last of their money and had remained there instead of heading back. No one there to pick the crop, so it rotted. And no way of bringing out skilled workers for a season.
I had a large tomato grower in Bundaberg tell me once (this was maybe 10 years ago) that he would bring out a planeload of experienced pickers, house and feed them, and where they would earn up to $60.00 per hour over a 4 month picking season...if he was able to do this. This is hard work, and most of the backpackers are unable to do it well. University students from Scandinavia are not your ideal tomato pickers! Experienced farm workers from Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam would be far better at handling the physical work, plus they would stick around.
Asking an industry to be reliant on the byproducts of the tourism industry for their harvest is not fair.