‘It’s outrageous we’re still talking about it’: NFF boss slams government’s efforts to solve labour crisis

The head of Australia’s biggest farm lobby group has slammed the efforts of government to address the $80 billion sector’s labour crisis as “not good enough” and causing regional communities to “suffer”. National Farmers’ Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said the food and fibre sector was short 150,000-170,000 workers, with the number of jobs vacant enough to fill Optus Stadium three times over. Mr Mahar made the comments at the Perth launch of Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days on Tuesday to a crowd of 500 in the Crown Ballroom, representing a who’s who of agriculture. “It goes across all levels of government,” he said. “It goes across the Commonwealth level around immigration and visa processing. “It takes way too long and it’s way too complex for the average farmer to actually get their head around. “At the local or state government level, we’ve got to get housing. “These people come into the country there’s nowhere for them to live.” The demands are among the demands on a “wishlist” the agricultural advocacy group is bringing to the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra next week. “It’s frustrating and it’s outrageous that we’re still talking about it,” Mr Mahar said. “The farm industry has been talking about this for a decade or more and it’s been exacerbated I know by COVID, but it is not good enough what governments have been doing. “Rural and regional communities are suffering — we see huge opportunities in agriculture and we’re just coming to a cliff and we just fall off because we haven’t got workers.” Mr Mahar said it was “absolutely critical” the issue was addressed in order for it to reach its ambitious $100 billion by 2030 goal. WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said the State Government would at the Summit push for header and truck drivers to be added to the Federal Government’s skilled migration list, so WA could do the same. It comes after outcry this week when bureaucratic red tape meant they did not make the cut of 100 new occupations added to WA’s skilled occupation list. “We do think that at least for some years, we need to have a few more categories (added),” Ms MacTiernan said. “Because from a WA point of view, we can only nominate the categories from the Federal list.” At present, header operators and truck drivers are considered “semi-skilled” under the Commonwealth. Following several industry roundtables in the lead up, Mr Mahar said they had been “very clear” about what the sector needed and short, medium and long-term deliverable and measurable targets needed to be set. “It has to deliver — it can’t be a talk fest,” he said. “We need more people coming into this country, we need faster visa processing, we need better skills development at the vocational level and we need to make sure that people and students see agriculture as viable career.” Mr Mahar said the trajectory of the industry was “so exciting,” with WA’s record 24 million tonne 2021/22 harvest a major contributor to the sector’s growth. “We’ve shifted the needle from around about $60 billion to 80 billion over a billion dollars,” he said. Referencing last year’s season — where many WA growers received record rainfall — and another good season with welcome winter rain, Mr Mahar said the industry was well poised on its way to the NFF’s $100 billion by 2030 target. “There’s money in mud so long may it continue,” he said.