Submission to the Working Holiday Maker Review

Working Holiday Makers provide an important source of labour to Australian farms. We need to encourage, not deter, working holiday makers to come and work on the farm, and we need to do this as soon as possible. This means abandoning the ‘backpacker tax’ and finding a better way forward. Whatever the politics, farmers will always need access to overseas workers. Without these workers, who supplement our local workforce, Australian agriculture cannot capitalise on the opportunities ahead and one of the five future growth sectors of the economy will instead grind to a halt.