Border restrictions must not delay ‘valuable’ harvest, contractor warns

Harvest this season “can’t be stopped” because of tight border restrictions, with crops too valuable to lose, a contract harvester warns.

Famine to feed: With Australia expected to have a bumper harvest this season, Bartlett Brothers Harvesting’s Dale Bartlett says harvest cannot be disrupted with border restrictions.

GRAIN harvest must carry on despite coronavirus border restrictions, with crops “too valuable to lose”.

That is according to Bartlett Brothers Harvesting’s Dale Bartlett who is expecting to send harvest contractors to Queensland, NSW and Victoria for the first time since 2016 following a bumper season.

Mr Bartlett said he was holding out for Friday to see what was to come of the National Agriculture Code, currently being worked on by states.

“Victoria can’t have restrictions on services, our crops are too valuable to lose,” he said.

“We can’t wait in taking them off, we just can’t stop harvest.

“If coronavirus happened this time last year, it wouldn’t matter as much for industry as there was no real reason to move around because of the season.

“We went from famine to feed.”

About six harvest machines have already been taken to Queensland on the freight permit, Mr Bartlett said, now it was just a matter of getting staff there to work them.

“I don’t see how harvest workers would be any different to moving around like freight which has a permit,” he said.

“We are from a coronavirus-free country area, which I would think is safer than sending people from Melbourne to Brisbane.”

Earlier in the year, coronavirus restrictions were causing complications for the company to secure a workforce, with most workers usually coming from overseas for the season.

But now, Mr Bartlett said, after “pouring money and time into advertising”, workers have been secured from across Australia.

“The worker issue happened to us about two months ago, then it has been followed with these border restrictions,” Mr Bartlett said.

“People in the city don’t understand the industry, and it is causing unnecessary stress.

“City people will start jumping up and down when they can’t have their cappuccino and bread in the morning.”

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