The following story first appeared at The New Daily and is republished here with permission.
A recruitment company set up at the start of the pandemic to find Australians work on farms has found it “impossible” to get locals jobs, despite the industry crying out for boots on the ground.
One of the founders of AgriAus, who spoke to The New Daily on the condition of anonymity, said the company had put out a “call to farms” to employ interested Australians and get them picking fruit and vegetables on the nation’s farms to save produce from waste.
The New Daily can also reveal that many labour-hire companies for the agricultural sector are advertising positions exclusively for backpackers, leaving unemployed Australians, who say they’re happy to work for fair pay, out in the cold.
AgriAus had more than 1500 applicants for farm work but was unable to secure even one of them a job due to farmers’ preference for foreign workers, the firm’s co-founder told The New Daily.
“We got 1500 applications from people desperate for farm work in three days,” he said.
“We started making contact with farmers to gauge if they wanted people to go out there or not. We spoke to the Department of Agriculture to see if they could push it, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference because the farmers don’t want to change their habits.”
He said they had tried farms across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, but as soon as employers heard the job seekers were Australian citizens all interest died.
What we’ve been finding is the moment you say you want to get an Aussie a job, the farmer doesn’t want to listen,” he said.
“We did a bit of digging around why, and farmers said ‘one, they’re lazy’, and ‘two, we have to pay them’.
“I’ve applied and been out to farms myself. The moment you say you’re a citizen you don’t get a response whatsoever.”
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown Australia’s fruit and vegetable picking industry into crisis, with an expected worker shortage by March of 26,000, and billions of dollars of produce at risk of being wasted if it can’t be picked.
Despite this, a growing cohort of locals are struggling to get work and the farmworkers’ union has told The New Daily that growers’ preference is to employ cheap, easily exploitable foreign workers over locals, and the industry needs to be “cleaned up”.
Currently, labour-hire companies across the country are advertising for positions, some of them specifically stating they will only employ backpackers.
“Working holidaymaker only” several job ads say, while others specify that candidates “must have a WHV visa” to apply.
Following a previous report by The New Daily — which revealed that job seeker Lukus Muir had been rejected for 20 farm jobs — the government announced it had teamed up with the National Farmers Federation to deliver a $6000 incentive for anyone willing to take a job in the country.
But Australians looking for farms jobs said it would do little good if farmers refused to hire them.
United Workers Union farms director Jannette Armstrong said conditions across the horticulture industry remained poor.
To “clean up” the sector, Ms Armstrong listed the key things that needed to be done: support existing horticulture workers, invest in our growing regions to make sure there is adequate infrastructure, and end the exploitation of undocumented workers in the industry.
“Supermarkets also have an important role to play,” she said.
“They are the biggest retailers of the fresh fruit and vegetables grown in Australia and must take greater responsibility for leading change, demanding, and ensuring responsible employment practices and humane treatment of workers in their supply chain.”
you don’t want to pay my kids to pick fruit? – I don’t want my taxes supporting you when the next “once-in-a-century” drought comes around
They really do want us to eat tinned pineapple from Thailand and grapes and lemons from the USA.
Well so be it. Just keep voting National and don’t crowd the already crowded dole queues, you greedy farmers.
I refuse to buy grapes from U.S ..and I love grapes!
Foreign imported fruit and vegies are sprayed with toxic chemicals, sometimes twice, when they arrive in Australia. Some foreign countries also farm fruit and veg using herbicides and pesticides that are banned in Australia. For the sake of your health, eat Australian (maybe grow your own?).
As a former fruit farmer the I find the treatment to workers, by mostly large corporate farming organisations, disgusting. And it’s made worse by the recruitment companies. We had people return year after year, and backpackers who’d recommend us to their families and friends back home.
Sadly due to the falling of supermarket dominated prices to farmers the smaller farms, which in general treated workers like family, had to sell up. Leaving many that are only in it for the money and don’t care what they do to the environment or those that work for them.
I do seasonal work and I can tell you for a fact of scenarios whereby farmers would not only exploit but prefer backpackers, this argument about Australians being lazy is a non argument as I have seen lazier backpackers whom find it a chore to have to work.
Also backpackers pay rent to backpacker accom or live on farms that the farmer then charges them rent for.
I knew and worked on one farm where 20 backpackers shared a two bed room house, two bathrooms and were EACH paying $100 a week to the owner of property.
Most were not making that kind of money on a weekly basis and when it rained there was no work and they still needed find rent!
The UNITED FARMERS FEDERATION, know of and support this as they are hand in fist with what goes on out there
Yes, 4 corners devoted an episode to all this a while back. They secretly filmed farmers saying they didn’t even want backpackers if they were from the UK, as they had good English and knew about unions, fair pay etc. (If I remember correctly). Absolute exploitation, and it needs to stop.
From Wikipedia
The first major blackbirding operation in the Pacific was conducted out of Twofold Bay in New South Wales. A shipload of 65 Melanesian labourers arrived in Boyd Town on 16 April 1847 on board the Velocity, a vessel under the command of Captain Kirsopp and chartered by Benjamin Boyd. Boyd was a Scottish colonist who wanted cheap labourers to work at his large pastoral leaseholds in the colony of New South Wales. He financed two more procurements of South Sea Islanders, 70 of which arrived in Sydney in Sep…
Also I know of one company that openly assists overseas backpackers get visa’s, help them with all manner of paper work to get them out here.
The requirement is that they stay for the duration of the season also stay in accomodation that is related to the company, whereby they pay rent back the company.
This is not a small company either as it is worldwide.