Pay hike for foreign workers to fuel pain in regions

Farmers, clubs, beekeepers and small business warn lifting the minimum pay for temporary workers could smash regional economies.

Duxton Bees general manager Keegan Blignaut, who operates one of Australia’s biggest beekeeping operations with 4,500 hives across the Murray-Darling region, said the increase would have a significant impact on his bottom line.,

Farmers, clubs, beekeepers, early educators and small businesses are warning that lifting the minimum pay for temporary skilled migrant workers to $70,000 could smash regional economies and fuel the jobs crisis.

Employers fear the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold hike – rising from $53,900 to $70,000 on Saturday – will threaten access to foreign workers and impact thousands of jobs across the country.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil announced the TSMIT change in April as a “down payment on the type of migration system” the government is building. Unions have endorsed a suite of Labor migration policies aimed at cracking down on temporary foreign workers.

National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said “this is just one of many migration issues hurting farmers” and while the group backed a TSMIT rise, the new level would likely put the skilled migration program out of reach. “The cost to a farmer is far more than just the salary – it costs about $30,000 just to get a skilled worker into the country,” he said. “This is backed by Grattan Institute research showing we will lose 84 per cent of skilled visa workers if TSMIT lifts to $70,000. What farmers need is a visa designed for agriculture, rather than Frankensteining other schemes.”

The Australian on Tuesday revealed that farms and tourist towns are fearing a backpacker exodus, with visa costs soaring to $640 on Saturday and the government considering a migration ­review recommendation limiting permits for working holiday-makers to one year.

Duxton Bees general manager Keegan Blignaut, who operates one of Australia’s biggest beekeeping operations with 4500 hives across the Murray-Darling region, said the increase would have a significant impact on his bottom line as he employs mostly overseas workers.

“Moving the TSMIT to $70,000 means that our business will have at the minimum an 8 to 10 per cent wage impact because we have to move every current visa holder up,” Mr Blignaut said.

“Plus existing staff who’ve been here longer, who say have been on earnings of $65,000 – which is already $10,000 above the TSMIT – now they require to be on $70,000, but they are an experienced team member, are they are going to be put in the same bucket as somebody who newly arrives in Australia?”

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said: “Any worker earning less than $70,000 after July 1 will have to get a pay rise, find a higher paying sponsored job or leave the country when their current visa expires. Businesses sponsoring temporary workers will have to pay the new increased wage.”

Duxton Bees general manager Keegan Blignaut, who operates one of Australia’s biggest beekeeping operations with 4,500 hives across the Murray-Darling region, said the increase would have a significant impact on his bottom line. Picture: Supplied.

The government says the new TSMIT level is where it should have been if it had been indexed over the previous 10 years.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Suresh Manickam said: “From almost overnight, the cost of labour goes up, so it affects the sector from that point of view.”

In a submission to the migration review, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA supported a TSMIT rise to $60,000 because any level higher “would further restrict” employers in low-wage sectors from securing workers. “Raising the TSMIT, for example, to $70,000, would exclude around 23,000 workers in the hospitality and ­retail,” the submission said.

The Early Learning and Care Council said the current threshold allowed early learning educators to be sponsored, with average wages sitting between $51,850 and $55,250: “A significant increase ... would result in a large proportion of the early learning workforce ... being locked out.”