Visa Changes Spark Fears of Food Insecurity and Worker Shortages in Farming Sector

Agricultural industries are warning that changes to working holiday visa migration policy could threaten crops and food security. The overhaul of the Working Holiday Maker visa system was outlined in Labor's recent migration policy.

Farmers are entering the Christmas harvest season for popular fruits like mangoes, lychees, berries, and cherries, as well as the summer grain season. However, the industry is concerned that they will not be able to find enough workers to pick crops and get them to market.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, agriculture employs more than 250,000 workers each year. The 2021 census showed that people from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds make up 13 per cent of the agricultural workforce.

Currently, backpackers on Working Holiday Maker visas who want to stay for another year need to work 88 days in regional or remote parts of Australia. Under the changes, visa holders would also have to enter a ballot, with the number of places capped at 45,000 — down from the 57,000 who qualified this year. The number of places will be capped further to 5,000 for those seeking a third year, down from 31,000 this year.

Queensland Farmers' Federation chief executive Kylie Porter expressed concerns about the lottery-type system, saying: "What we're doing is we're placing at risk Australia's food security over an issue which could be resolved in a way that's far more amenable to those regional and rural communities across Australia."

"Christmas harvest periods are intense, and we absolutely rely on that workforce to be able to complete those harvests," she added.

Kaya Barry, a senior lecturer at Griffith University, noted that larger farms secured most of their workers through the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, and Labor's policy change would have a greater impact on smaller operations.

"For smaller farms, particularly the family-run stuff … they can't guarantee the seasonal work is there year-round, and that's where the backpackers have filled those shortages," she said.

Dr. Barry also stated that PALM workers would not be able to replace backpacker labor on farms: "It's really important to have highly mobile workers who are willing to just come and do two or three weeks and then move on to the next place and follow that harvest trail around the country."

She added that it was not feasible to rely on an Australian workforce: "We don't have enough people living in regional and rural Australia to do all that work."

Head of Citrus Australia, Nathan Hancock, expressed concerns about the current backlog of processing applications, saying: "People have been waiting three to four months for their applications to be approved. In many of these industries, harvest is about to start in two weeks."

"This just creates more angst and more concern for all of those industries that would normally rely on workers at this time," he added.

Berries Australia CEO Rachel Mackenzie warned that workforce shortages could lead to wasted crops: "You may have periods where you need quite a lot more workers than other periods … we need those backpackers to assist with surge capacity and be a complement to the existing PALM workers."

"For some growers [fewer workers] might mean that they have to finish their season early, it may mean that they can't get their crops picked in time," she said.

The industry has welcomed the addition of agriculture to the skilled worker visa, with Mr. Hancock calling it the "one bright light in all of this".

"It is positive to see that agriculture will be added to the [skilled worker] visa," he said. However, he called for more clarity on these changes, specifically which types of workers will be added to the skilled worker visa.