Visa scheme to tackle farm labour crisis

A new agricultural visa scheme has been unveiled which will allow workers to be recruited from 10 South East Asian countries to tackle a labour shortage. The announcement comes after Australia agreed to abolish a requirement for British backpackers to work on farms to extend their visas - decreasing the workforce by up to 10,000 United Kingdom citizens per year. Victorian Farmers Federation Horticulture President Nathan Free told Sky News the pandemic had made it “very difficult” to get reliable labourers onto farms and the visa had been “in the pipeline for a long time”. “We’ve been just trying to work with government and other organisations to try and get some workers for farmers so they’ve got continuity and they’ve got sustainability in their business so they can look into the future,” he said. Mr Free also said there had been a number of government initiatives to support businesses including the extension of the seasonal worker program in Victoria. “There’s been a lot of ways we’ve been trying to work on getting more workers into the country but the [agriculture] visa’s going to be a step in the right direction,” he said. Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au