National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) CEO Tony Mahar says the Australian Workers Union’s (AWU) national secretary Daniel Walton should apologise to the nation’s farmers over comments he made regarding a new agricultural visa (reported on MB yesterday).
Walton alleged amongst other things that the new visa will give “dodgy farmers” access to more “exploitable workers”.
However, Mahar says the visa will complement existing arrangements for temporary migrant workers in the agriculutral sector, including the Seasonal Worker Program and the Pacific Labour Scheme:
“Mr Walton’s dog-whistle allegations about modern slavery are shameful and are unfortunately aimed at achieving nothing more than a headline and what I’m sure he hopes is a few new members”…
Mr Mahar said Mr Walton owed farmers an apology…
It will enable farmers to employ temporary workers from ASEAN nations, which include Cambodia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The new visa will be extended beyond horticulture to provide extra workers for the meat processing, fisheries and forestry sectors.
Has the NFF been living under a rock? There have been many inquiries and reports proving that temporary migrants have been ruthlessly exploited on Australia’s farms.
For example, a group of academics – Joanna Howe, Alex Reilly, Stephen Clibborn, Diane van den Broek & Chris F Wright – jointly penned an article in Fairfax claiming that the exploitation of temporary migrant horticultural workers is rampant:
Australia already has more backpackers, and relies more strongly on them for horticultural work, than any country…
Unlike agricultural visas in New Zealand, Canada and the United States, and unlike Australia’s own Pacific seasonal worker program, there is no pre-approval of employers. Nor is there systematic ongoing regulation to ensure compliance with workplace laws…
Story after story after story have exposed exploitation on farms…
In 2016, the Fair Work Ombudsman completed an inquiry into Australia’s backpacker visa scheme, which found that “many backpackers are being subjected to underpayment or non-payment, unlawful deductions, sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions and other forms of exploitation”.
A scathing Senate report, entitled A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders, also documented systemic abuse of Australia’s Working Holiday Maker visa program, which was “consistently reported to suffer widespread exploitation in the Australian workforce”.
Similarly, the 2017 National Temporary Migrant Work Survey found that one in every seven temporary migrant fruit and vegetable pickers were paid $5 an hour or less, and a third $10 an hour or less.
Let’s not forget the Migrant Workers Taskforce’s 141-page report, released in March 2019, which found that “wage underpayment is widespread and has become more entrenched over time”, with as many as half of all migrant workers exploited.
Other recent reports of exploitation have been documented here, here, here, and here.
You get the idea. The horticultural industry is ground zero for migrant wage theft, exploitation and ‘modern slavery’. The proof is damning and only an industry shill would claim otherwise.
The Morrison Government’s agricultural visas will only make the power imbalance and exploitation even worse. They will provide pathways for permanent residency for the visa holders provided they pledge to become indentured with an employer for at least three years.
The lack of thought that has gone into this visa has laid the groundwork for another Coalition immigration debacle.
