Get Australians working first.

I disagree! Australia has high youth unemployment, and these folk need to accept paid work inside Australia. Even if that means the return of consciption and getting these gilded youths off their lard asses, harden them up and earning their dole payments with piece work!

Refuse the work and the dole money stops! If all they do is keep up with the grey nomads then the industry will have no shortage of Agriculture workers. Grey nomads could assist by proving transport for their unemployed grandkids?

If granny can earn a day's pay in temps over 40C then so can junior! As opposed to roaming the streets in gangs and up to all kinds of stupidity!

Piece workers can and do often earn far more than the award by their industry. And by ensuring they stay hydratied including sufficient potassium and sodium salt replacement.

ASEAN workers are often exploited as ultra cheap labour and unfair on the other guy paying award rates to all comers! Be they a fair-minded, decent minority?

Time to end the garbage in garbage out humbug that is so rife in this industry and get our own people out there earning a quid!

Been there done that!
Alan B.

It would be nice if we could ttbn, but we might need bigger whips to get some Australian, or recent imports working.

I once bought a house in Burrum from a 10 quid Pom. He was moving to get away from the sugar area. Evidently the local CES had been threatening him with reduced dole payments if he didn't take seasonal job offers in the near by sugar mill.

"I'm not coming off benefits for 6 months work" was his statement. "I'll have to use up holiday pay & have a waiting period to get back on them". This despite the fact he would be much better off with the much higher income from the mill. He obviously preferred to not have to get out of bed in the mornings.

You will find this attitude quite high in some rural & other coastal areas. I had to find a new farrier a while back, when mine advised me he'd been busted for working cash in hand, while collecting disability payments for a bad back. A quick check of the bank account receipts of Byron Bay full time surfers would show who's paying their way too.

Hasbeen,

No work. No money. We need people with the guts to enforce it, but yes, there is not much chance of seeing that happen while we have only dropkicks to vote for.

In my opinion- we shouldn't be bringing people into Australia to work on our farms- we should be trying to fill the gap between the work and the money. In most cases people people will fall over themselves to get work in a bar or restaurant or similar- we need to be asking the question- what makes farm work different?

I've done farm work before and there seem to be issues- people will go where the money is- if they can get work close to home (or at least provides accommodation)- that doesn't pay on commission- that treats safety seriously. Each type of farm work has particular hazards. People on unemployment benefits aren't required to travel more than a certain distance to work.

I think that there are things that farms can do individually and as a group to make farm work more attractive that don't cost money.

In one case I put my name on a bulletin board and I got two days of work in three weeks- apparently they preferenced backpackers- in another case I was injured onsite through bad practices and they said that I needed to train my body to get used to it. In a third case the produce I picked gave something of the order of $2 per hour for 4 hours travel- not really financial. Both the farms and the farm workers go to the farm for the same reason- to make money.

I get it that many farms are family businesses- and I support this- but still I think that some of these business owners are retards- maybe I got the bad ones.

If you treat your workers badly you won't have workers- it doesn't have to cost a lot of time or money to at least have a passing interest- especially when you're getting 10 or 20 at a time.

Maybe the government can give tax or exemptions to the unemployed who work on farms similar to the visa benefits they give to foreign visitors.

I understand the supermarket duopoly and their contracts cause issues for farmers