Coronavirus: Growers demand Pacific travel bubble to save crops

Growers are demanding the Morrison government urgently introduce a Pacific travel bubble to fast-track the arrival of seasonal workers.

‘If growers can’t get workers, they’re not going to grow,’ says Lorelle McShane, owner/manager of McShane Produce on her north Queensland farm. Picture: Cameron Laird

Growers are demanding the Morrison government urgently introduce a Pacific travel bubble to fast-track the arrival of seasonal workers, saying their worst fears are being realised with crops ploughed into the ground.

Calls for a circuit-breaker to the labour shortage crisis come as Australia’s vegetable and potato industries said an increasing number of farmers had been forced to walk away from their harvest in Queensland and NSW, as Victorian farmers nervously watch on.

Tyson Cattle, executive officer of the National Farmers Federation’s horticulture council, said there was no evidence of increased inquiries from domestic workers 10 days after the government’s budget incentive began giving Australians up to $6000 and backpackers up to $2000 to relocate to regional areas for short-term agricultural work.

Instead, he said, the focus had to be on getting thousands of vetted seasonal workers from Pacific Island nations to Australia.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud estimates 22,000 ­Pacific workers are on standby to be deployed to Australian farms but Mr Cattle said states’ quarantine arrangements were delaying their arrival. “It would be great seeing the federal government get on the front foot in terms of building a bubble with the Pacific Island nations so we can bypass these quarantine arrangements and get these workers moving,” Mr Cattle, who also works for AUSVEG, said.

“Growers deal with drought, bushfires, but trying to talk to them at the moment where they’re walking away from the crop because they can’t find people to pick them when our unemployment is on the rise and we’ve got a workforce available from COVID-free nations (in the ­Pacific), they’re scratching their head and feeling isolated.”

North Queensland zucchini and squash farmer Lorelle McShane, 64, normally sells 40,000 to 50,000 cases of produce from her Dalbeg property but this year managed 27,000 cases.

She and husband Sean usually begin their harvest season on May 19 but this year it started on July 11 because of COVID-19 shutdowns and a hospitality industry that was mostly closed.

They wrapped up harvest four weeks early when they were unable to hire their full complement of six staff and have lost “quite a few hundred thousand” dollars in income, returning a month’s worth of produce into the ground.

Lorelle McShane views her farm after wrapping up harvest early due to a labour shortage. Picture: Cameron Laird

“I feel quite annoyed that there are so many Australians on JobSeeker, and even the ones on JobKeeper that aren’t going to work,” Ms McShane said.

“I estimate it would cost me $50,000 to bring in 20 workers from the Pacific. Then we have to quarantine them, that’s $2500 to quarantine them. That’s quite prohibitive for a lot of growers.

“If growers can’t get workers, they’re not going to grow. The cost of fruit and vegetables in the shops next year could be astronomical,” she said.

Mr Littleproud said the Morrison government had been extending visas for those prepared to work in agriculture since March and had pre-vetted 22,000 workers under the Pacific and seasonal worker programs but it was up to states to agree to their individual quarantine protocols.

“Regardless of a Pacific bubble or quarantining in Australia, the states’ chief medical officers would have to agree to quarantine protocols. Those are facts AUSVEG should understand to ensure their representation is targeted and effective into the future.”

Ms McShane urged the government to consider a two-year agriculture visa for backpackers still in Australia, who would need to work on a farm for six months and then could travel the rest of the year.