Failed state government farm jobs scheme axed after just eight applicants applied

A state government program aimed at helping drought-­affected farmers source workers has been axed.

Marcus Taylor said he would’ve applied for the job scheme if he knew about it. Picture: Jay Town

A state government farm jobs scheme that ran for more than six months had just eight applicants.

Run by the Victorian Farmers Federation, the $150,000 pilot program was aimed at helping drought-­affected farmers source the workers they needed when the national jobless rate was 7.4 per cent and youth unemployment more than double that at 16.4.

But just eight people registered their interest in the Farm Employment Exchange Project, which also sought to link drought-affected farmers in need of extra work with potential employers.

The scheme focused mainly on the formerly drought-ravaged Wellington, East Gippsland, Millewa and Goulburn Murray regions and was open from April to November, with a website live for six weeks, leading up to June 30.

A VFF spokesman said the project aimed to connect job seekers with employment ­opportunities but failed to fire “due to a number of factors, including the easing of drought conditions in many parts of Victoria”.

About $100,000 was used to build and test the pilot website, with the unused funding returned to the Victorian government, he said. It’s understood the scheme was marketed through advertisements and social media, had no worker age limit and enabled workers from anywhere in the state to apply for work on previously drought-affected farms.

Some areas, such as East Gippsland, had also been devastated by bushfires.

Opposition agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh slammed the failed scheme, accusing the Labor government of not understanding farmers or farm businesses.

“The Andrews Labor government is just spinning in circles and delivering nothing for Victoria’s nearly $16bn agriculture sector,” Mr Walsh said.

Mr Taylor letterbox dropped all the farms within a 30km radius of his home to find work. Picture: Jay Town

Former farmer Marcus Taylor said he would have been among the first to sign up for the farm jobs scheme had he known about it.

“But I never even heard of it,” he said.

At 77, Mr Taylor said he was “fit as a fiddle”, willing and able to work 12-hour days “and could work a lot of young people these days into the ground”.

He was so keen for farm work at the time the jobs scheme was running, he letterbox-dropped every property within a 30km radius of his Natte Yallock home, offering his services.

Mr Taylor said he was ­experienced and skilled in most areas of farm work and would have willingly travelled away from his home, near Maryborough, to work on drought-affected farms, if accommodation had been provided.

Instead, over winter, he chopped, carted and delivered firewood, just to keep ­active and make a quid.

This month his letterbox drop finally paid off and he had been offered casual work carting grain, Mr Taylor said.

“All I want to do is work, so I’m a happy man,” he said.