Agriculture visa ‘must be flexible’, farmers warn

The promises have been made, but how will the the new agriculture visa work? Farmers have a few ideas, as work gets underway with the design.

A new agricultural work visa has been promised, but little has been decided on how it will work. Picture: Andy Rogers

Farmers say an agriculture-specific work visa needs to allow workers the freedom to move from farm to farm if it is to benefit employees and employers alike.

And the promised new visa must be introduced as soon as possible if there’s a chance of helping farmers staring down the barrel of another season of workforce shortages, industry warns.

“We’re only months out from the grain harvest and weeks out from the Northern Territory’s mango harvest,” National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson said.

“The Federal Government really needs to call farmers’ representatives into the room now and finalise the details of this visa.”

After four years of lobbying from the agriculture sector and little action, the Government last week unexpectedly confirmed it would create an agricultural visa for the United Kingdom and 10 South East Asian countries. 

It’s in response to Australia agreeing to scrap the requirement for UK backpackers to complete 88 days of farm work if they want to extend their visas – a move estimated to take another 10,000 casual horticulture workers out of the pool, potentially exacerbating the Covid-19-induced worker shortages.

Work on designing the new visa – which will run alongside the working holiday and seasonal worker schemes – is already underway, with government officials meeting late last week, ahead of industry discussions in Canberra this week.

While Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has vowed the visa will be in place by the end of the year, there are few details of what it will look like.

Mr Littleproud has said it will be a three-year visa, with visa-holders working in agriculture for up to nine months each year and having to return home for the other three.

It is unclear if visaholders will be “tied” to an employer, as occurs with the Pacific Island seasonal worker programs.

Ms Simson said it was essential ag visa workers were “flexible and portable”, and could move across various farms, which would allow smaller producers who had less ongoing work to participate.

“SWP workers suit the bigger farms with more diverse crops because they have to stay for a number of months,” Ms Simson said.

“The difficulty (in accessing the SWP) is particularly in smaller farms who only need workers for a few weeks or months.”

Concerns have already been raised by unions and academics that the new visa class will entrench worker exploitation in horticulture.

Queensland horticulture group Growcom has called for employers under the new visa to be certified through its Fair Farms initiative, under which farmers must show high employment practices.