Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The coming fruit harvest in the Goulburn Valley is in jeopardy due to the lack of available labour to pick and pack this fruit. The fruit harvest in the Goulburn Valley has traditionally relied upon the working holiday-makers, the backpackers and also some from the Pacific island nations in the Seasonal Worker Program. Backpackers have dropped from the usual 130,000 at this time of the year to the roughly 67,000 we currently have. There seems to be a shortfall of 26,000 workers that we need. The coalition at a federal level has tried to tackle this shortage by providing extra time in Australia to current working holiday-makers. We've tried to engage further countries in the Seasonal Worker Program. We've got relocation incentives of $6,000 for people who want to move into the agricultural regions to get involved in this work, and some more incentives for those on youth allowance. The Minister for Agriculture, Drought, and Emergency Management has said we have pre-vetted 22,000 Pacific island workers who are work ready and ready to come out here, but the Victorian government needs to get on board, accept this offer and do what it has to do. It needs to make a clear statement from the minister for agriculture that the chief health officer and all the health ministers involved are fully in sync with this program. We don't want a situation where Victoria starts blaming everybody else.

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