‘Tis the Season
Earlier this month the annual ABARES Outlook Conference was held in Canberra.
For those not familiar, ABARES (or the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences) is the science and economics research division of the Australian Government's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry – a staple of the Government for 80 years.
This annual Conference brings together influential Australian and international speakers, and panelists from industry and government into one room to dive into the diverse issues shaping the future of the industries they represent.
Make no mistake, the work this Division does is not taken lightly as the data they collect, interpret, and then deliver back to the government informs policies, programs, and service delivery. In fact, the work they do is so relevant for horticulture that QFVG has been making it our business to understand where and how they collect their data, how they then interpret this data, and how they present the data to improve our understanding of why the government seemingly makes some poor decisions at times.
Take seasonality for example. For those of us who work in horticulture we are very aware that our ‘seasonality’ nuances very much set us apart from all other agricultural industries - and we keep saying it!
After attending last year’s Conference, we came away with 19 questions just around their workforce data alone including: How are PALM workers accounted for when some of them are in the country only nine months meaning they don’t have to fill in the census? Is fulltime equivalent (FTE) the best capture for a seasonal workforce? Is ABARES also able to capture government compliance costs as part of their research? How are natural disaster events being captured in a growers cost of production – does one state differ from another? Would single touch payroll data be more accurate to demonstrate seasonal nuances?
To our delight, at this year’s ABARES Conference one of our questions were answered! Research presented in the Jobs and Skills Australia report – An Essential Ingredient: The Food Supply Chain Workforce - overlayed mushrooms and stone fruit to demonstrate the different workforce numbers you get not just from one crop to the next, but also when you get your data from the census (which is in August each time) and single touch payroll.
The results speak for themselves, census data is only capturing those crops in season at the time (why has it taken this long to understand this?) and by adding payroll data more information becomes clear. However, this is still not a perfect system as it still doesn’t capture data on labour hire staff and owner managers or family workers.
This finding reinforces our ongoing argument that understanding the full scope of seasonality is crucial for accurate policymaking in horticulture.
It's clear that the impact of seasonality on our workforce is more complex than traditional data captures allow, and this missing piece of the puzzle has contributed to policy decisions that don’t always reflect the realities of our industry. As the conversation continues, it is vital that we push for more nuanced and comprehensive data collection, ensuring that future decisions are informed by the true dynamics of horticulture. Because - ‘Tis the season.
