Australian Open: $8.5 billion in fruit and veg ignored as tennis stars arrive in Melbourne

Victoria has welcomed hundreds of tennis players, while vital fruit and vegie pickers remain shut out. We compare the value of the Australian Open versus Victoria’s horticulture industry to the state’s economy.

THE Andrews Government is putting Victoria’s $8.5 billion horticulture industry at risk by failing to find a way to bring in overseas harvest workers — despite pulling out all the stops to salvage the Australian Open and its $387 million sugar hit.

The state’s farmers are outraged the Victorian Government could find a way to bring in 1200 tennis players, coaches and staff, while their pleas for fruit and vegetable pickers continue to be ignored.

Figures from Tennis Australia show last year’s Australian Open contributed $387.7 million to Victoria’s economy, and created 1775 full-time equivalent jobs.

Victoria’s horticulture industry, in contrast, is worth $3.1 billion in produce annually plus another $5.4 billion from processing, making it the biggest horticulture producer in Australia.

The state’s apple and pear industry, which accounts for 90 per cent of Australia’s pome fruit and is due to begin harvest next month, is worth $580 million alone.

Data from ABARES shows the sector provides 13,650 full-time jobs, and up to 25,000 casual roles in the summer months.

Premier Daniel Andrews has defended the decision to hold the Australian Open amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, arguing the valuable event would be poached by another Asia-Pacific nation if it was cancelled.

“This event is very important to our city and state and it is worth going to these unprecedented measures to ensure it goes ahead,” Mr Andrews said last week.

But Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said it was astounding the Government could find a solution for tennis, but not horticulture.

“The Andrews Government has acknowledged not having the tennis this season would put the Australian Open at risk for the future,” she said.

“But how can an industry that is growing year and year out, that feeds Australians, that employs thousands, not be a priority also?”

Ms Germano said despite numerous meetings and proposals, industry had not seen any movement towards finalising a quarantine pathway for seasonal workers.

“We keep hearing something is imminent over and over … yet nothing has happened and we’ve been left in the dark as to what their intention is,” she said.

Industry is predicting Victoria will be the next crisis point in the nationwide worker shortage, which is tipped to reach 26,000 by March; but the Government has yet to finalise a quarantine pathway for seasonal workers from COVID-free Pacific Island nations, almost two months after it first promised to open the state’s borders to the scheme.

Meanwhile, 72 tennis players are in quarantine after seven COVID-19 cases were detected aboard three Australian Open charter flights. 

Victoria is the only state to have not bring in any seasonal workers so far. To date, the other states have brought over 1425 workers of a possible 22,000 pre-vetted Pacific Islanders.

The Weekly Times has sought comment from Victorian Agriculture Minister Mary Anne Thomas. 

Ms Thomas has previously said the Government was continuing to work on plans for addressing the shortage, and has called on the Federal Government to speed up its COVID risk assessment of Pacific Island nations, to inform Victoria’s response.

Mallee MP Anne Webster — whose electorate includes stone fruit growers in the midst of harvest — criticised the Government’s inaction.

“Allowing the entry and quarantine of 1200 players and staff for the Australian Open, and planning for the re-entry and quarantine of thousands of international students, adds salt to wound of growers who are struggling to get crops from their paddock to your plate,” she said.