Will Papua New Guineans finally get to pick fruit downunder?

(I’m not sure the source of the following story – it was emailed to me by my friend Ray from Oz – my guess is that it appeared in a weekend edition of one of the Australian newspapers)

August 17, 2008, 3:46 pm

The Rudd government will give 2,500 visas to Pacific Islanders each year for the next three years so they can come to Australia to harvest fruit and vegetables.

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says the three-year pilot seasonal workers’ scheme is not a move towards cheap labour, but a plan to help solve “a chronic labour shortage in some parts of Australia”.

The move follows calls for assistance by the horticulture industry, which says up to $700 million worth of fresh produce is left to rot because of a lack of reliable workers.

“For too long Australian farmers have become sick to death of watching their own fruit rotting on the vine because they couldn’t get a worker there to pick the fruit,” Mr Burke told reporters.

Visas will be available to workers from Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to work in Australia for up to seven months in any 12-month period.

The first group will arrive later this year, with the program to be reviewed in 18 months.

Initial regions being considered for the scheme include Swan Hill in Victoria and Griffith in NSW, with labour market surveys currently being conducted in other regions.

Mr Burke said the scheme was not about cheap labour but plugging a labour shortage.

“Pacific Island workers are not a cheap labour option,” he said.

“In fact, for employers it will be marginally more expensive to access this scheme than it would have been had Australian workers been available.”

Participating employers will pay half of the return airfares and cover establishment and pastoral care costs involved in bringing Pacific Islanders to Australia, he said.

Mr Burke said employers must also prove they have made “reasonable efforts” to employ Australians before employing overseas, low-skilled seasonal workers through the scheme.

Australian Workers Union (AWU) secretary Paul Howes said while he acknowledged the Australian agricultural sector was suffering a labour shortage, the government must ensure the scheme is regulated to protect workers from unscrupulous employers.

“There’s some pretty grubby and horrible things that happen out there in remote workplaces where farmers have used foreign labour,” Mr Howes told Network Ten.

“If we don’t regulate this scheme, the illegal practices will continue … a worker should not earn one dollar less than an Australian worker.”

Mr Burke said the scheme did not allow for wages to be undercut, with all low-skilled seasonal workers to be employed in accordance with Australian work standards, including awards, and receive the same protection from exploitation as Australian workers.

There was also no danger workers would stay in Australia and seek work elsewhere, because the visas only allowed the worker to work in the horticulture industry, he added.

Charles Burke, vice president of the National Farmers Federation (NFF), which has been working on the scheme for three years, said the federation was delighted the government had embraced the initiative.

“The government and NFF’s shared vision for overcoming the chronic nationwide shortfall of 22,000 seasonal workers in horticulture should be widely applauded given the benefits for all concerned,” he told reporters.

Oxfam Australia executive director Andrew Hewett also welcomed the scheme and said it could provide a release valve on pressure for employment for the rapidly growing youth population in the Pacific Islands, while opening up new opportunities for skills development and cultural ties across the region.

“With the right standards to protect workers, it can generate income for many Pacific Island communities and assist Australian farmers who face severe labour shortages,” he said.