diver,
> Asians and farm work don’t mix, I’ve seen it first hand

Please explain!
Who does the farm work in Asia?

_________________________________________________________

ttbn,
> They get citizenship, then head off to Sydney or Melbourne for better jobs or a life on the dole

With Sydney and Melbourne house prices this high? If anyone else had said that then I'd have assumed they were joking!

Aidan.

I take it from your post above, you are onside with opening the (flood) gates to cheap Asian labour, freely offered to the farming sector to plunder for profit?

A position which implies (by your less than subtle defence of it), your happy to have Asians plundered in that way.

If your so enamoured with Asian peasants, wouldn’t your stand here be one of protecting their rights at home first, rather than having them dumped at a farm gate in Australia, under the pretence of lifting them up, in order to hold down wages of the 90% of Australian workers already scorched by the greed of the landed classes, and their enabling National Party, who, coincidentally, has their arch criminal back in control, Barnaby Joyce.

This scheme is beyond a joke, and totally dishonest!

As I said, it’s a fake!

Dan

When Aidan comes up with an opinion of his own rather than nagging other posters over their opinions, Hell will freeze over. He is a parasite.

Dan, spent many hours picking fruit and with bent back harvesting all manner of food! And was there running beside the truck when we were harvesting lucerne hay, in a predawn to twilight gut bust!

And travelled all over towing a caravan to access it!

No, I don't endorse slavery! As when I did this work myself, earned a decent quid!

And as a rule, those of us who grew up in rural areas, could work the pants off of soft spoiled (moaning whining sobbing) kids from the towns. And if they weren't so soft and spoiled, we would not have to import labour! Nor use shonky labour-hire to recruit and deploy them!

I get that some don't agree with conscription! Or withholding phones and cars until the character building and teamwork training had rusted on!

Simply put, hard work never ever hurt anyone, just its lack!

Older generations did this character-building work, even while still at school! Or during the gap year, they needed and time to decide, what comes next? The saved income didn't hurt either!

Slavery is unpaid work and none of what I did or propose is anything like that!

All I'm saying or proposing is, an honest day's toil, for an honest day's pay! And as hasbeen has said, get the lard asses up off of their broad beams and out where they can regain their health and genuine self-esteem!

We confront a future where the soft self-indulgent will be unable to adapt to the change that's coming! Whereas, those who are able to tie it up with wire etc, to keep the show on the road, will make it on through to the other side with something to show for their hard yakka and sacrifice!

And we do need to expose a cohort of farmers who cheat and steal wages and entitlements, that then rip earned profit margins from the majority that do the right thing. The current status quo won't change any of that! But filling the field with English speaking Aussies will!
Alan B.

Fruit picking, been there, done that. In the 50s when parents still couldn't afford things like sports gear & boots for kids, most of us went fruit picking to earn the money to buy them for ourselves.

When the basic wage was less than 10 quid a week as a 14 year old I could earn 15 quid in 5 days work, not much wrong with that. It paid for my bike, foot ball boots, & even a watch back when they cost a couple of weeks average wage.

The schools used to push dire threats about not marking our exams, or not letting us back next year if we went fruit picking straight after the exams, but all that easy money was too strong a drag, when families were still getting over the poor years of the war.

Come on Diver, have an honest look at farming, particularly fruit & veg. Cop the cost of planting/pruning, fertalising, watering, picking packaging, & freight to the markets, then find out if the price today covers those costs, & perhaps a profit.

An organic grower mate of mine gave up & bought a truck when for 4 consecutive months the price he got for quality products was less than the cost of cartons & freight.

A tomato grower in Bundaberg told me he got less than the cost of production & freight for on average 6 months a year. In most years he got a slight profit for another 4 months, then there would be a shortage for a couple of months, offering sky high prices when he made all his annual profit. His problem is no one knows when the shortage will occur. He has to maintain full 12 month production to catch the high price period.

Growing food is a mugs game, that's why, when I needed to maintain an income after I retired I grew advanced shrubs & day lilies for the landscape trade. Meeting demand was the problem, not selling the production for a profit, like the market gardeners down the road.

Will we continue to grow our own food, or outsource it to foreign countries as we have done with manufacturing? Anything is possible with the current Australian political class, more interested in control than in what is best for Australia and Australians.