Covid-19 quarantine space key to farm visas

The initial bilateral agreements for the new visa could be finalised next week, but quarantine capacity remains a key challenge.

A worker harvesting Asian vegetables on a farm at Kemps Creek in western Sydney.

Australia is close to finalising initial bilateral agreements with South-East Asian countries as part of a long-awaited agriculture visa, but a lack of quarantine capacity and facilities remains a barrier to allowing in foreign workers to fill critical labour shortages.

The Australian understands the Department of Foreign Affairs Trade is working through agreements with four ASEAN nations that could be finalised as early as next week. The new visa scheme is designed to alleviate workforce shortages exacerbated by the pandemic.

Despite the visa being due to start at the end of the month to coincide with the harvest season, a strain on quarantine arrangements will hinder how many workers can enter the country. In the horticulture sector alone, the government predicts an extra 30,000 workers will be required by February.

On Tuesday, Labor took aim at the Morrison government for what it said were failures in delivering more national quarantine facilities and overseeing a vaccine rollout that has been plagued by delays.

“The Morrison-Joyce government must now act on these crippling shortages which are hurting farms across the country and driving up the cost of fresh produce for Aussie consumers,” Labor’s agriculture spokeswoman Julie Collins said.

But Agriculture Minister David Littleproud called on the states to boost quarantine arrangements and adopt more flexible systems for the foreign workers, saying they were the “biggest constraints”.

“We’re just saying to states, have some courage and conviction. Don’t be the handbrake on agriculture,” he told the ABC.

“This is the constraint of the federation. Every state is their own sovereign government. We have to respect that.”

Mr Littleproud pointed to an agreement made by all premiers and chief ministers in national cabinet last year to bring in agriculture workers above their quarantine caps.

He described South Australia as a “gold star” model for creating its own quarantine facility and doing in-country quarantine for workers coming from Vanuatu.

But Ms Collins said states were forced to develop their own quarantine solutions because of a lack of federal leadership.

“There should have been a national plan for quarantine that addressed farm workforce shortages,” she said

The agriculture visa is expected to coexist with the Pacific Labour Scheme. The Australian on Tuesday revealed that almost 30,000 Pacific workers approved to fill labour shortages ahead of a bumper harvest season face being locked out of Australia due to strained hotel quarantine capacity. The government has announced overhauls of the Pacific Labour Scheme and Seasonal Worker Program, broadening access to workers and removing barriers for businesses.

The agriculture visa was negotiated alongside Australia’s free-trade agreement with Britain, which ended the requirement for British backpackers to work on farms for 88 days if they wanted to stay in Australia for two years.

The Nationals’ support for the deal was contingent on the federal government creating a visa to tackle chronic workforce shortages that would be exacerbated by scrapping the requirement that would see the sector lose 10,000 UK workers.