Farm lobby demands visa slaves as Aussies banned from travel

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While Aussies are banned from travelling freely around the country, Australia’s farm and tourism lobbies have hatched a hare-brained scheme to fly backpackers into Australia to pick fruit and mind children:

Backpackers prepared to pick fruit or work as au pairs could become the exception to Australia’s inbound travel ban under a pilot proposal by farm and tourism groups.

The National Farmers’ Federation and the Backpacker and Youth Tourism Advisory Panel are framing a proposal that would initially allow 150 backpackers to travel to Australia, as soon as October.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.