The exploitation i know exists in the Robinvale area.
This farmer employs vietnamese to pick grapes on his block for the fresh market.
His workers get whatever he has got to pay: with deductions.
He supplies transport to and from town, when these people arrive which he charges taxi fares.
He supplies the acomadation on farm in tin sheds, which he charges rent.
He supplies the meals and charges what they charge in town.
His workers get whats left if any.
His captive workforce has no come back, this is ok by the law.
These vietnamese don't speak much or no english.

Farmers have been a protected species for far too long. If they cannot attract workers based on paying good wages then they should be allowed to go out of business. This is how capitalism works.

There are two issues here:

1: Failure of governments to protect minimum wage earners, many of them migrant workers. Also human decency should ensure decent, sanitary accommodation for primary industry workers. There is all talk but no monitoring. I am not suggesting micromanagement scrutiny but a basic level of standard should be enshrined in workplace law. There is of course the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate complaints but backpackers often don't have the time or knowledge to pursue their cases to the full extent.

2. The other equally important consideration is because of our ridiculous market system, farmers in many sectors are struggling to make a living while the costs of production outweigh what they are offerred for their product.

A farmer who cannot even pay himself a decent wage won't have the capacity to pay anyone else a legal wage.

Mike
You should have learnt the disproofs of your arguments in Economics 101.

For starters, you have not shown any exploitation whatsoever. The fact that you don’t like transactions that other people voluntarily enter into, doesn’t mean they’re exploitative. The consent of the parties to the transaction answers all moral issues.

To say that the backpackers have no choice is rubbish. They have the choice not to work there. Besides, they have the choice not to emigrate from countries where the wages are lower still.

You ask why farmers don’t supply this or that. Why don’t you?

You might say that the farmers get the benefit; but they don’t. They don’t get the benefit of paying costs over and above market rates. Why don’t you and Pelican put your money where your mouth is?

The point everyone is missing is that the market system generates greater wealth for everyone participating based on the economic sovereignty of the masses of people *as consumers*, not as producers. That’s why the South Koreans, but not the North Koreans, can afford these trips. The North Koreans think like Mike Pope and Pelican.

What is fair is what is agreed. The farmers are themselves in competition for workers. *That*, the accumulation of capital, and the demand of the consumers for fruit, is what justifies the wages and conditions of workers, not the arbitrary opinion of politburos and commissariats.

Pelican
That must be the most asinine comment I have seen in a long time. You assume that there is a fountain of capital somewhere that can just be indefinitely drained, to provide everyone with an income and conditions that bear no relation to what the consumer is prepared to pay for their product. You have confused what is fair with what is dictated.

“our ridiculous market system”

What would you replace it with? An entitlement for everyone to receive what is “fair”, as dictated by the priviligentsia, with everyone drawing from the common storehouse, and no-one with an interest in producing what the consumers actual want?

Perhaps they should come a bit further north, to the Burdekin. All the backpackers I have met around here are high on life, enjoy their stay and don't complain. Maybe they're getting paid better than backpackers elsewhere, maybe they're traeted to better accommodation or maybe I've simply met the lucky ones.

It is certainly worth noting that these people are supplementing their income - they tend to have some cash to burn and the money they get from picking mangoes is simply a bonus. Those who do it year in, year out for the same pay are the ones who, as so many others here have said, deserve our attention.

Peter
I had no doubt your faith in all things laissez-faire would lead you to judge any contrary comments as asinine