WA farmers fear changes to the Federal Government’s visa processing priorities will leave them short of workers as busy periods such as harvest approach, prompting calls for an overhaul.
Ministerial Direction 119 took effect on July 25 and replaced previous arrangements that gave employer-sponsored regional positions high processing priority.
The WA agriculture sector is heavily reliant on working holiday-makers under the 417 subclass visa, which has been placed at the bottom end of the priority list.
As a result, WA farmers have been left frantically searching for employees before spring calving and WA’s $10 billion grain crop harvest, which begins in five weeks.
Esperance grain farmer Mic Fels, who is the WA representative on the National Farmers’ Federation workforce committee, said the Government had stopped processing 417 visas despite saying it was conducting a strategic slowdown.
“I’m not aware of a single working holiday-maker, or what they call the backpacker visa, that’s been approved,” he said.
Denmark dairy farmer Andrew Jenkins said it was disappointing that the emphasis had been taken off the processing of these visas for the industry.
He has two paid-for applications under the subclass 482 program.
“If you’ve got somebody waiting overseas to come to your business for a job, and they’re waiting six to 10 months, it’s a hell of a gamble, isn’t it?
Mr Jenkins said bringing individuals into the country on a temporary visa could be a viable solution to mitigate migration risks and improve the process.
“If we decide that they’re not suitable, then they won’t progress to a more permanent visa,” he said.
“That’s one way of sorting out the better prospects from the lesser prospects, too.”
The Department of Home Affairs noted on its website that it would be prioritising law enforcement or defence interests, and onshore applications in health care, teaching and construction.
Mr Fels said the Government had abandoned the regions again by effectively halting 417 visas, which would affect one-third of the workforce needed for the upcoming harvest.
“We’re heavily dependent on working holiday-makers, and now the Government’s trying to pull that away as well,” he said.
“We’ve had the fertiliser and fuel crisis, and now unnecessarily they’re throwing on us a labour crisis.
“How much are we supposed to take for the team?”
The Australian Working Holiday visa, or subclass 417, allows young adults from eligible countries to holiday and work in Australia for up to three years.
Home Affairs noted on its website that processing times were longer than usual due to a high volume of WHM visa applications.
Mr Fels said the workforce committee had called for priority processing of applicants who had an employment agreements in place, with housing provided, as an immediate short-term solution.
“It’s a very practical and a pragmatic solution which we’re putting to the Government now,” he said.
Mr Fels said the medium-term solution would be for the Government to create an exclusive agriculture visa.
“Part of the problem here is that we’ve basically hacked the 417 visa,” he said.
“It’s the only visa under which we can get access to highly skilled machine operators from other parts of the world.
“At the moment, agriculture professionals like these highly skilled machine operators come in as a level four skill, which basically is a labourer, under the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia.
“You can’t immigrate under the skilled visa program on a level four.”
Mr Fels said a flow-on effect would also be felt in regional communities.
“They’re actually contributing in a meaningful way to our economy and supporting the regions,” he said.
“This is just another act of self-harm by this Government on the Australian economy.”
WAFarmers president Steve McGuire said deliberately slowing backpacker visas was the wrong response to the Federal Government’s failure to bring Australia’s broader migration system under control.
“Good migration policy should be about attracting the people Australia needs, not simply finding the easiest visa category to slow down so the Government can claim it is doing something about migration,” he said.
Mr McGuire said the immediate restoration of normal working holiday-maker visa processing was a necessity, giving priority to applicants who could demonstrate they had secured agricultural employment.
“If a working holiday-maker has the skills we need and a genuine job offer from a Western Australian farmer, get them on the plane and get them here for harvest,” he said.
Grain Producers Australia chair Matthew Madden said he was alarmed by the introduced policy settings that undermined working holiday-makers as part of the seasonal workforce mix.
“Many of our members rely on working holiday visa holders to meet their staffing capacity needs at critical times such as during harvest, and this policy position could see them struggle unnecessarily,” he said.
“The Australian grain sector has been facing monumental challenges recently, including fuel and fertiliser supply and price challenges caused by the Iran war.
“We know there is significant political pressure on the Government in relation to migration numbers, but this shouldn’t lead to a problem for our hardworking grain growers.”
Alastair Falconer, WA Grains Group chair and GPA policy council representative, farms in the northern Wheatbelt and regularly seeks out extra labour in busy periods.
“We’ve been recruiting lately, with noticeably less working holiday visa holders around to potentially help us for harvest,” he said.
NFF horticulture council executive officer Richard Shannon said temporary migrant workers played a critical role in maintaining Australia’s food security and keeping fresh produce affordable.
According to Jobs and Skills Australia, more than one in four horticulture workers are temporary migrants, making horticulture the most migration-dependent sector in the nation’s food supply chain.
Mr Shannon said working holiday-makers made up about half of the sector’s casual workforce during peak harvest periods.
“The link between migration policy and food security is too often overlooked,” he said.
“Australians expect affordable, high-quality fresh food on supermarket shelves every day.
“That only happens because a seasonal workforce turns up in regional Australia when crops are ready to harvest.”
Mr Shannon said if growers couldn’t access workers when crops were ready to harvest, food production would fall, costs would increase and Australians would pay more for fresh food.
Australian Dairy Farmers called on the Federal Government to urgently reverse the visa processing change that pushed many skilled dairy workers to the back of the queue at the worst possible time of year.
Australian Dairy Farmers president Ben Bennett said the unintended consequences were significant.
“The Government has changed the queue after farmers and skilled workers have already paid to get into it,” he said.
“Some dairy farmers have spent up to $12,000 finding, assessing and sponsoring skilled workers because those skills simply cannot be found locally.
“They have paid government fees, made workforce plans and acted in good faith.
“Now many of those workers who have been waiting for up to six months already, have been pushed to the bottom of the pile.”
Mr Bennett said the timing was particularly damaging during spring calving.
“Cows don’t wait for Home Affairs to process a visa,” he said.
“If the worker doesn’t arrive, the work falls back on the farmer, their family and existing staff.
“That means longer hours, more fatigue, greater risk of accident, lower productivity and greater food safety concerns at one of the busiest times of the year.”
Mr Bennett said the Government needed to change dairy-related visas to higher priority categories immediately.
The Federal Government was given until 12pm AWST on Tuesday, August 25 to comment.
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