Over the past year we have heard endless reports of farms suffering acute labour shortages due to an inability to obtain migrant workers, as well as an unwillingness by Australians to do farm work.
We have also read reports claiming that many Australian farms have refused to employ local workers because they have to be paid a legal wage and are far less easy to exploit than migrants.
New data from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) suggests the Morrison Government’s claim that unemployed Australians are “too lazy to pick fruit” is a lie. This DESE data shows that 10,500 job seekers have found fruit picking jobs in the last six months. More tellingly, an additional 3,500 who were fit and prepared to do the work applied for work but were rejected, which is at odds with claims by farmers that they were desperate for workers.
