Editorial: Illegal worker amnesty plan call common sense

IT IS high time we acknowledged the likelihood that at some stage we have consumed fruit and vegies harvested by people not permitted to work here, it’s argued in this EDITORIAL.

DO YOU know how the food on your dinner plate got there?

It is high time we, as a society, acknowledged the likelihood that at some stage we have consumed fruit and vegies harvested by people not permitted to work here.

The Victorian Farmers Federation’s Horticulture Policy Council deserves praise for attempting to address this issue by calling for an amnesty on illegal workers.

It is, at the very least, an admission the industry has a problem.

Why shouldn’t those who did not have the good fortune to be born here, but who are prepared, and proven — sometimes over years — to work hard, have a chance at a fresh start?

An amnesty could be a much-needed chance to wipe the slate clean and correct damage caused by a system that has failed workers and farmers for decades.

It takes leadership to put your head up and speak out about an issue such as illegal labour.

Nobody likes to think the food they eat is anything less than legally and ethically produced and, as VFF horticulture president Emma Germano pointed out, “no political party wants to touch this”.

Ms Germano is driven by pressure to provide fresh produce efficiently and safely.

She is right to say the award rate for workers should not be lowered, and we would agree that no Australian job seeker should miss an opportunity because it was given to a foreign worker.

But maybe we actually need these people.

Yes, there are details to be cleared up about how such a scheme would work effectively and to protect workers and the farmers who employ them.

But let us at least have the conversation.