The Victorian Farmers Federation has welcomed recent changes to the agricultural specific visa to attract foreign workers to deal with current farm labour shortages.
On the other hand, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) sees the changes a chance to exacerbate rural labour force exploitation.
Farmers have been known to lament that Australians will not do the work the foreigners will for multiple reasons and now, by agreement with a free trade agreement, Brits will not either. It is thought that other European countries are now likely to use this as a bargaining chip to extricate their nationals from the 88-day rural obligation that is a requirement to extend their visa.
The new ASEAN country visa is targeting the ten Asian countries we currently trade with to draw in more than 10,000 that the loss of British backpackers is likely to in concert with the current Pacific Islander visa agreement.
There is no doubt there is a problem attracting workers to the bush even though more than 750,000 Australians at any one time are out of work while the agriculture industry employs 315,000.
“Labour shortages are being experienced across every agriculture industry sector. From milkers, livestock farm hands, pickers, packers, machinery drivers; everyone is having trouble finding labour,” said Emma Germano, president of VFF.
Due to the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic the current workforce supply crisis, which is identified by the National Farmers Federation to be greater than 100,000 workers or 30 percent of the industry.
At the crux of the problems from the perspective of workers and the AWU is that pay and conditions are not commensurate with other industries. Farmers claim that workers are well paid if they work hard given that many prefer piece work payments as opposed to fixed wages.
The foreign workers offer an opportunity to bring in workers that are not accustomed to these same conditions and as such, will work under arrangements many Australians and European backpackers complain about. The average monthly wage a farm worker in say the Philippines might expect is in the order of $300 compared to $3,700 in Australia.
One area the government could focus on is the price of food and the way farmers have to cut costs and discard a large portion of their pick.
Although food prices are not regulated in Europe, the government actively intervenes in the affairs of the retail industry by controlling anti-competitive practices and by coordinating efforts within the food industry.
Although our politicians tell us that everything is done to encourage healthy competition within the industry, the fact is, it is very difficult for any government to foster a competitive environment without regulatory intervention.
To address unfair trading practices, in other words, the significant imbalances in bargaining power between contracting parties (usually between large retailers and food producers/farmers) – the French government for instance has taken a very structural approach by reforming their agricultural industry through legislation in 2010.
The central objective of this key reform is to protect the farming community by re-regulating the agricultural market.
Mechanisms to protect farmers’ revenues include enforcing long-term contractual arrangements between farmers and large retailers, and ultimately to protect the farming community against price volatility and price fixing by large retailers.
Anti-competitive practices are closely monitored and sanctioned by ‘L’Autorite de la Concurrence” (ADLC), the French equivalent to the Australian ACCC.
Over the last 40 years, the French government has introduced a series of legislative steps that includes measures such as forbidding loss leader practices (unlike in Australia, which allows it).
Given that farmers were able to increase their portion of the final retail price, they could afford to increase the compensation and conditions to the workers respectively.
In the meantime, the cost cutting is at the production level and keeps farmers in the position where they cannot afford to support local workers and need foreign workers in their stead.
