Growcom laments Qld exclusion from farm labour trial
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A leading horticulture group says it is disappointed Queensland has been excluded from a federal trial to use Pacific Island workers for crop picking.
The Federal Government this week announced the scheme will be trialed in Victoria and New South Wales.
Growcom has been calling for the scheme for a number of years to help with the chronic labour shortage in Queensland's peak horticulture area around Bundaberg in the south-east.
But Peter Peterson from the Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers Group says many local growers had the opportunity to participate in trial, but decided against it.
"From the outset we welcomed the pre-trial in Griffith and Swan Hill and whilst there were some growers who welcomed the trial and had some interest in participating in the Pacific Islander work program, they elected to pull out and focus on employing their local people," he said.
"They elected initially to put their hand up for it, but on rethinking about it and also probably partly to do with the lack of detail in the original proposal, they've rightly so elected to focus on employing the local people as a priority.
"Fortunately for us, we have a large backpacker contingent that pass through the area - we don't particularly suffer from a significant shortage of seasonal labour."
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