PALM scheme only hope to grow ag workforce

The Albanese government will push on with its plan to solve agriculture’s labour crisis with workers from the Pacific, despite calls to expand to other nations.

Agriculture minister Murray Watt has reinforced the federal government’s commitment to almost exclusively try to solve agriculture’s labour shortages with workers from the Pacific nations.

The comments come after the National Farmers’ Federation again called for a “purpose built” agriculture visa to replace the current “mixture of haphazard solutions” to help fill 170,000 job vacancies across agriculture.

In a wide-ranging interview to mark the Albanese government’s first year in power, Mr Watt said Labor would “pursue an ag visa” by curating existing visa options under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme after shelving the Coalition’s agriculture visa - that was open to 10 mainly South-East Asian countries - after coming into office.

Michelle Garae from Vanuatu is a Pacific islander who works in the packing shed at the Stanthorpe Apple Shed in Thulimbah. Picture: Adam Head

“Workforce shortages obviously remain a challenge but we think that the current visa system can be made to work better for the agriculture sector,” he said.

While more than 37,000 workers are currently participating in the PALM scheme, Mr Watt said the government’s focus on strengthening the scheme was underpinned by diplomatic considerations.

“I think we all now understand how important the Pacific is to our strategic future and building those relationships with people in the Pacific through the PALM scheme I think is in our national interest, quite apart from the benefits of producers to workers on farms,” he said.

The PALM scheme is a temporary circular labour migration program that fills unskilled, low and semi-skilled workforce shortages across rural and regional Australia.

However, farming groups have expressed concern that a scheme open only to Pacific nations will not deliver workers at the pace, or in the skills and long-term numbers, it needs.

More than $166 million was announced in the 2023-24 federal budget to enhance PALM oversight and participant welfare settings.

Meanwhile, Nationals leader David Littleproud said an ag visa must be extended to ASEAN countries that had expressed interest in joining the scheme, claiming farmers were reducing plantings or deferring investment amid the uncertainty of labour availability.