Seasonal workers arrival delayed until March as Victoria, Tasmania yet to finalise quarantine plan

Farmers are still waiting to find out how much the Victorian Government’s seasonal worker plan will cost them – and now it looks like it could be too late to save this year’s harvest.

Harvest is already well underway for many farmers across Victoria.

THE first Pacific Island seasonal workers destined for Victoria will not arrive in Tasmania until next month, dashing farmers’ hopes of extra help for the current harvest.

Almost three weeks since promising to bring 1500 workers into the state – and more than two months after a solution was first promised – the State Government has provided no details to farmers of how its quarantine-sharing arrangement with Tasmania will work.

That’s despite the Government’s initial suggestion workers could be on Victorian farms by the end of this month or early March.

Victoria is entering peak harvest season for some of its major horticulture crops, including apples and table grapes.

Frustrated industry sources told The Weekly Times the ongoing delays meant the workers would be too late for this harvest, while some feared the plan would fall over before it even got off the ground.

“They’ve bought themselves some time (by making the announcement) but we’re not even looking at any flights arriving until the end of March,” one source said.

Under the plan, Victoria will bring at least 1500 Pacific Island workers into the state by the end of June; they will quarantine in Tasmania for 14 days before coming to work on Victorian farms.

The quarantine costs will be shared by farmers and the State Government, however, it is still unknown how much farmers will have to pay.

A Victorian Government spokeswoman said: “We continue to work closely with industry, the Tasmanian and the Federal Governments to progress applications, organise flights and finalise the details of quarantine for our Pacific Islander Mobility Scheme intake.”

Nationals leader Peter Walsh said there could have been hundreds of workers already on the ground if the Government had agreed to industry’s proposal, put forward in October, to quarantine workers in Mildura.

“Instead, Labor’s empty promises have left our farmers forced to watch 12 months of hard work rot on the ground,” he said.

Nationwide, crop losses due to the worker shortage now exceed $45 million.

Meanwhile, NSW has announced it will bring over another 800 Pacific Islanders to work in agriculture, with about 140 harvest workers and the majority meat workers.

NSW has been fielding its own criticism for a slow start to using the Pacific labour programs, in part due to farmers having to pay $3000 in quarantine costs per worker.

NSW has repeatedly ruled out on-farm quarantine in favour of hotel quarantine.