Damian Drum calls on Scott Morrison to target Taiwanese fruit pickers

The Morrison government has not ruled out targeting workers in Taiwan to pick Australia’s fruit, amid a looming shortfall.

Nationals MP Damian Drum thinks the Morrison government should launch an advertising campaign in Taiwan to encourage workers to pick fruit in Australia. Picture: AAP

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge has left open the possibility of targeting Taiwanese workers to fill Australia’s critical labour shortage across the agriculture industry, after Nationals MP Damian Drum urged the Morrison government to “let Taiwan know we’re open for backpackers”.

Australia’s growers face a workforce gap of up to 26,000 people by March, prompting several Coalition backbench MPs to raise concerns in Tuesday’s partyroom meeting.

The federal budget unveiled more than $50m in incentives to get young, unemployed Australians into the regions picking fruit and changes to visas for overseas nationals doing agricultural work, but some MPs and agricultural stakeholders are sceptical this will be enough.

Mr Drum said producers in the Goulburn Valley region, located in his Victorian electorate of Nicholls, have suggested a cohort of workers from Taiwan would help fill the shortage.

“We don’t need to do anything other than an advertising program and let Taiwan know we’re open for backpackers,” he told The Australian.

“We might have to put on planes but ultimately we’re bringing people in from a COVID-free environment. We’ve got a country the same (population) size of Australia in the Asian region. The Australian dollar is effectively four times as valuable as the local currency and we are therefore an attractive nation for any potential backpackers.”

Any such move would likely escalate tensions with China, which is sensitive to other countries’ relationships with Taiwan.

Mr Tudge said the government had made “significant changes” to help farmers fill workforce shortages by restarting the seasonal worker and Pacific labour programs and allowing flexibility for backpackers to stay in Australia longer.

Asked if the government would consider Mr Drum’s Taiwanese proposal, Mr Tudge said: “We’ll continue to look closely at options to support farmers and our tourism sector.”

Liberal National Party MP Warren Entsch said he did not care where extra workers from overseas came from but conceded “we’ve got to do something because we’re in a desperate situation”.

He also claimed Pacific Islanders who had their visas extended were moving off farm and doing cash work in other industries so they did not have to pay more tax.

“You’ve got to make sure those that are here (on seasonal worker, Pacific labour and working holiday visas) are staying in the agriculture sector, that’s the first challenge,” Mr Entsch said.

“Secondly, although we’ve provided more incentives, we’ve found Australians – particularly the younger people – are not interested in getting into the field. We need to be able to have some sort of carrot or stick to encourage them to do the time there. The budget was more a carrot but maybe they need a bit of a stick as well.”

Scott Morrison told the Coalition partyroom on Tuesday the government was working hard to fix the worker shortage problem, acknowledging it was difficult to get people from overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic.