Overseas workers are an indispensable part of Australian agriculture. Our members run seasonal and labour-intensive operations, located in areas where labour markets are thin. The remote, dispersed, cyclical/seasonal and oftentimes physically challenging nature of farm work necessitates a flexible, mobile and motivated workforce, a certain type of worker who is not always available in the thin markets in which our members operate. This creates a gap in the domestic workforce which the recruitment of overseas workers must fill to ensure the timely harvest of perishable goods.
Read the full submission here.
Chrissy Kerin