For months the farming sector has been bellyaching that it can't get labour to pick and plant fruit and vegetables. One of the well known reasons for this shortage of labour in the sector has been worker exploitation through poor wages and conditions. In a major breakthrough the Fair Work Commission has effectively abolished "piece rates", being paid for what you pick, and replaced it with a minimum hourly rate. Often piece rates are as low as $3/hour, in an extreme case a worker was earning $9 a day. The Australian Workers Union (AWU) argued before the Commission for a minimum wage of $25.41/hour, the 'Usual Suspects' in all this, the exploiting farmers claimed a minimum wage would be burdensome and result in an increase in prices for customers. By burdensome I assume they mean it will cut into their super profits, and of course the free market will determine their final price of their pickings. According to the FWC the existing piecework provisions in the horticulture award are not fit for purpose, and they do not provide a fair and relevant minimum safety net. The FWC found piece rates were widely used to underpay workers.

The real test will come as dodgy employers try to flout the law and pay below minimum standards, which is not unusual in Australia. Employers big and small have for years exploited workers through under payment of wages, and so called "contractor" arrangements.

Low wages don't constitute slavery. Slaves are paid nothing.

However, any primary producer not prepared to pay decent wages should do all the work himself or get off the land.

Perhaps they might now get the harvest done, and they can stop moaning about fruit 'rotting on the ground', and begging for more immigrant workers who will take rubbish pay if there is a chance of getting a permanently visa.

The moaning and groaning about labour shortages is bullshite. $25 an hour might go some way to putting a stop to the whingeing; although there will be complaints about that too.

I'm all for Australia, private enterprise, buying local, and the other patriotic mantras, but we need to wake up to the fact that we are are bullshited to people taken our money in this country.

Farmers are price takers. They do all the work of producing a product, then send it off to market & have to take what is offered.

A few case studies.

A mate, organic vegetable grower for 10 years near Torbanlea. No employers, the family did all the work, & produced great stuff. He bought a service station when for 8 consecutive months he did not once get the cost of even the cartons & shipping to Brisbane markets for his stuff. State laws required his produce go to Brisbane markets.

Bundaberg tomato grower. Big operation with 20 happy permenant employees. Told me he loses money on shipments for 7 months average each year. Breaks even for another couple of months. Makes all his profits in the other 3 months. Trouble is no one knows when prices will be up, so must ship fruit every week to catch the rare good prices.

Citrus grower Howard. On the get big or get out principal he bought out 2 adjacent citrus farms. Rented the houses on 2 farms, & he & 1 employee with one lot of equipment handled all but the picking. It worked for a while, but eventually the rising costs of fertiliser, fruit fly spray along with machinery & irrigation costs made the operation a loss business. He had to rip out all the trees or continue to spray to control the fruit fly.

Vietnamese family Tamborine. 20 acre small crops farm. All family work, & I have never seen people work so hard. After 2 years of barely making a living they sold off the equipment & bought a couple of trucks. A much better business they assured me.

3Th generation 1600 acre wheat farmer Jandowae. Almost lost his farm after 2 years of failed crops. Did not have the borrowing capacity left to fund another years planting. One thunderstorm saved a 200 acre non irrigated cotton crop, or he was gone. Farming is an expensive high risk business in Oz, certainly not a place for get rich quick rip off merchants

Not to worry, I bought a bag of boiled lollies at Woolworths today, good tasty product, made in China.
We’ll soon be a net importer of foodstuffs.
I know a number of farmers who have given the farming game away; the only crops that we grow are fodder for our own animals and the ‘roos and deer and we grow vegetables for ourselves.
When we have too much we give the extra away to people who need a hand.
The eldest son always plants more than we need and if the ‘Roos don’t break the garden fences there is always some to give away.

"We’ll soon be a net importer of foodstuffs".

We're getting close. With all this Zero 2050 BS, we'll have few manufacturing or farming industries, but we will be importing more of what we no longer make of grow from foreign countries, whose emissions will sky-rocket keeping up with the demand.

With the cost of farm inputs skyrocketing, & doubt that any profit will be achieved, there is even less chance of farm kids being silly enough to want to stay on the farm.

I did quite well growing advanced shrubs for the nursery trade. Knowing that growing food is a mugs game, leading to bankruptcy, I have never fallen for it.

When I moved here I planted over a dozen fruit trees, along with grape & passion fruit vines. By the end of the second season the white cockatoos had destroyed all but one of the vines, they saved that for the next year.

I had decided I did not like the nasty sprays required to control the fruit fly, so I didn't mind when The magpies & crows picked holes in the citrus, & the lorikeets ate the half grown apples on the trees, leaving the cores hanging on there like sad Christmas decorations.

I decided that with the cost of fertilizers, sprays & irrigation, it was cheaper to buy rather than grow your own. My son took great delight showing me how versatile his Ford Ranger is by pulling the useless things out of the ground, leaving just the white mulberry, Brazilian cherry, & a couple of more recently planted dragon fruit.

At least the birds plant dozens of cherry tomatoes in any clear garden, & even in the pots of pot plants. They don't mind leaving a good supply for us.