Farmers “fed up” with labour shortages demand migration solutions

A powerful alliance of food industry groups says government inaction on labour shortages is sabotaging industry growth.

“Fed up” agriculture leaders have demanded the federal government urgently open new pathways to funnel workers into the nation’s food supply chains, including a greater focus on enticing labour from Association of South East Asian Nations.

The National Food Supply Chain Alliance, representing 160,000 businesses with revenue of $200 billion, said chronic labour shortages had reduced agriculture’s supply chain production and logistics capacity, restricted sector growth and increased food price inflation – currently as high as 15 per cent in some commodities.

The group, which revealed at last September’s Jobs and Skills Summit that agriculture was short at least 172,000 workers, said workforce constraints were compounded by new data showing the nation had suffered its largest fall in labour productivity on record – a 4.6 per cent drop in the year to March.

National Farmers’ Federation acting president David Jochinke said since last September “we’ve seen hiring conditions go backwards”, citing the government’s industrial relations reforms and Pacific Labour Mobility Scheme changes as also “making life harder for farmers and food businesses”.

National Farmers’ Federation acting president David Jochinke on his property in western Victoria. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“Frankly, farmers are fed up with these issues not being taken seriously. Government needs to sit up and listen to the genuine concerns of employers,” he said.

“Look at the numbers – you have productivity going backwards, growth stagnating, the cost of food has gone through the roof.

“More people working in the food supply chain would help remedy these big-picture problems, but the government doesn’t seem interested in the easy win here.”

Alliance members, which account for more than 10 per cent of the nation’s overall GDP, said government must work faster to identify worker migration solutions, including reduction of barriers to work and more suitable visa pathways for overseas workers.

However, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt recently reinforced the federal government’s commitment to almost exclusively trying to solve agriculture’s labour shortages with Pacific workers.

He said Labor would “pursue an ag visa” by curating existing PALM visa options, partly for regional diplomacy reasons, after shelving the Coalition’s agriculture visa – that was open to 10 mainly South East Asian countries – after coming into office.

Earlier this week, agriculture and business leaders launched a campaign calling for Labor to abandon its “same job, same pay” industrial relations reforms, saying they would only further pull down productivity.

Farm workers from Fiji and Vanuatu. Picture: Paul Beutel

Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also show the economy grew by a weaker than predicted 0.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, while accelerating wages growth threatens to push the cash rate towards 5 per cent.

After announcing a cash rate lift to 4.1 per cent on Tuesday, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe warned that a return to 2 to 3 per cent inflation would only follow several years of slowed economic activity.

Alliance members are the NFF, AusVeg, the Australian Meat Industry Council, Seafood Industry Australia, Independent Food Distributors Australia, Master Grocers Australia, Restaurant and Catering Industry Association, Australian Association of Convenience Stores and the Refrigerated Transport and Warehouse Association.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Christian Gilles