North Queensland horticulture kicks goals
The Regional Migration Forum held last week in beautiful Bowen was another amazing example of North Queensland kicking goals and not just the ‘Cowboys’ kind.
It would be fair to say that this forum, hosted by the Bowen Gumlu Growers Association in collaboration with the Queensland Agriculture Workforce Network, was one of the best, most practical, diverse and single topic forum that I have attended in recent times.
Managing a workforce takes up a great deal of time and energy for our growers with the management of migrant workforces, currently the toughest game of them all. Although the win-wins in migrant workforce have always made the work worth it for both parties, from all the conversation at the forum, it seems the rule changes have changed the goal posts midgame resulting in this model of workers now being considered unworkable.
A grower who is navigating the humanitarian and policy challenges of the PALM scheme said, “We (growers) are humans too and deserve consideration and adequate consultation on any changes that are made.”
He went on to explain that growers genuinely want all their workers to feel safe, supported, connected to meet their goals of supporting their families back home yet are made to feel like criminals in the current scheme. “We aren’t criminals, we want a better scheme, not one that is unworkable,” he said.
Worker protections are absolutely without question and growers want nothing more than the businesses not doing the right thing sent off. However, the answer can’t lie in good growers being penalised.
This same grower’s team gave an awe-inspiring account of their long-term experience with the PALM scheme and the team of families they have employed, invested in and supported over the years with great results on the board. Whilst it was rewarding to see and hear about the positives, the frustrations remained close to the surface with conversation around the government’s lack of acknowledgement of the seasonality of horticulture, the need for flexibility and longer averaging periods and the time it takes to get workers ‘in country’.
With many growers once again reevaluating their workforce options, we heard backpackers are back in the game, with the team looking a bit different to what it was pre-covid. Data is suggesting working holidays makers are back at pre-covid levels. However, due to PALM workers being put in place, they have now been met with a lack of work available and subject to our cost-of-living crisis. Unfortunately, there are already numerous stories of their return home narrative being a negative experience, with stories of no work and expensive living. For a workforce which has always been a part of horticulture, this is sad and concerning.
They’re doing some great stuff in the north, working as a team on these extremely relevant workforce issues is just one example.
