Labor has defended its plan to replace the agriculture visa announced by the federal government last year and offer more incentives to farm workers from the Pacific.
Labor announced on Tuesday it would create a dedicated agriculture visa stream under the established Palm (Pacific Australia Labor Mobility) scheme, effectively replacing the Coalition’s new visa for forestry, fishery, and farm workers targeting workers from south-east Asia.
The agriculture minister, David Littleproud, accused the opposition of scrapping the agricultural visa which Australian farmers needed to meet workforce shortages.
“The Australian Workers’ Union have got their way and will kill the hopes of providing a long-term solution to the labour workforce issues in agriculture,” Littleproud said.
“What Labor has announced today is what is already in place with some tinkering at the edges of the Pacific Labour Mobility Program.”
The shadow minister for home affairs, Kristina Keneally, told ABC this was not the case as “the only thing that changes are the source countries, where the workers come from.”
Labor’s would also publicly fund the initial travel costs of Pacific workers travelling to Australia rather than farmers, allow workers to bring their families and promote permanent residency on a new Pacific Engagement Visa.
Keneally said the policy was developed after speaking to farmers who wanted long-term certainty, saying “not one worker has arrived” under the government’s agriculture visa.
“The difference between Labor and the government – Labor’s ag visa has 55,000 workers ready to go,” Keneally said.
However the CEO of AUSVEG, Michael Coote, the industry body for the vegetable and potato industry, said the proposed changes to the ag visa would restrict the number of partner countries and result in fewer workers on Australian farms.
The Australian Workers Union said Labor’s policy would offer better conditions for workers.
“Instead of begging the foreign minister to convince her Asian counterparts to accept a ‘trust us’ frankenstein visa with no safeguards, Labor’s plan would build on the success of the established Palm scheme, which would strengthen existing ties with our Pacific neighbours,” the secretary of the AWU, Daniel Walton said.
Labor’s visa announcement comes as agricultural businesses prepare for the introduction of a guaranteed minimum wage for fruit pickers after the Fair Work’s Commission’s decision in response to the union’s application last year.
Horticulture workers will no longer be dependent on the contentious piece rate payment, which pays the worker for the amount of fruit they pick as opposed to their time.
From Thursday, employees can still be paid a piece rate, but they will be guaranteed a minimum wage for each day that they work.
Walton said the change was a “momentous shift” for fruit pickers in Australia who he said have been routinely and systemically exploited and underpaid.
“Too many farmers have been able to manipulate the piece rate system to establish pay and conditions far beneath Australian standards,” Walton said.
However the president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, Emma Germano, said the changes will add extra pressure to the stretched agricultural workforce.
The changes to the horticulture award also bring in a new definition of competency for pieceworkers who have at least 76 hours experience. As a result they will earn at least 15% more than the minimum hourly rate.
Germano said that would make the hourly rate for competent casual workers nearly $30 an hour – the highest wages for fruit picking in the world.
As a result, she said farmers will have to decide whether to let under average-competency workers stay picking fruit and vegetables, even if the efficiency doesn’t match the cost an hour, or let the fruit go unpicked.
Germano said in the past, working groups such as grey nomads were happy to work for lower wages without the pressure to meet certain targets. She said the changes would increase the cost of production, which will be passed on to the consumer unless supermarkets absorb some of the cost increases.
Abul Rizvi, an immigration adviser, said that while farmers might be able to show they are paying proper wages on paper, they could deduct costs such as accommodation, transport and visas at exorbitant rates. “Then the person ends up with close to nothing.”
Both Germano and Rizvi want to see a strong compliance and enforcement regime from the Fair Work Ombudsmen to accompany the changes.
“Or else the entire activity will have been in vain … because growers doing the right thing will be disadvantaged by unscrupulous operators who will have the capacity to undercut the market,” Germano said.
Rizvi believed stronger legislative penalties against employers who fail to pay the minimum wage were needed.
“In my view that should include criminal penalties, not just financial penalties,” Rizvi said.
“Wage theft is stealing. It’s no different to going to the bank and stealing money.”
