Australia's seasonal worker scheme lags behind NZ's
Updated
It appears Australia's long-awaited Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme isn't living up to expectations. The scheme was set up to bring Pacific Island workers into the country to pick fruit. It's been in place for 18 months, but so far only 137 of the 2,500 available visas have been issued. So why has a similar scheme in New Zealand had a far higher take up rate?
Presenter: Liv Casben
Speakers: Jerf van Beek, national coordinator for seasonal workers, Horticulture New Zealand; Len Thompson, farmer and Sam Laki, Pacific Island worker
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LIV CASBEN: It's apple picking season in Hawke's Bay and workers on Len Thompson's farm are flat out. It's one of eight orchards operated by the apple farmer who employs 200 workers across the region.
LEN THOMPSON: Currently we have 75 from Samoa. And they're divided amongst the eight orchard managers and to give us that surety of labour on a daily basis. We know they are going to be there each day and we can rely on them and plan on that.
LIV CASBEN: Len Thompson is a fourth generation farmer. His family company Yummy Fruit produces around a million boxes of apples a year. But four years ago when a labour shortage was declared in the Hawkes Bay area he looked to his Pacific neighbours for help.
LEN THOMPSON: We find or historically have found that we have had a high turnover of people who see the romance of fruit picking and the reality of it being hard physical work means that a number of them just can't make it.
And so this current scheme now has allowed us to be dealing with people that understand the nature of the work. They've come from rural backgrounds in the Pacific and so are used to the hard labour aspect of it. So it's certainly made it more consistent having this group returning.
LIV CASBEN: Sam Laki is back in New Zealand for a third season and he helps others from his Samoan village get work.
SAM LAKI: We send some of the money back home so that we are doing the rebuilding and a tidy up of our village, because our village was affected by the tsunami last time.
LIV CASBEN: The Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme gives out up to 8,000 visas a year. It started three years ago because of a shortage of seasonal labour. Today more than 7,000 people are employed through the scheme.
Jerf van Beek works for Horticulture New Zealand and is the national coordinator for seasonal workers.
JERF VAN BEEK: We've got growers, horticulture and viticulture growers who've been able to for the last two seasons pick their crops at the right time when they've wanted to, to achieve the highest quality that we're well known for.
We've got Pacific island nations who have been able to contribute some of their staff who have come here and have sent money back home. And their people have gone back home again. Very, very low rate of overstaying, less than 1 per cent.
And we have a government that has been able to work between the two but also has been able to get taxes and GST recovery out of our industry. In the past we had a lot of illegal labour, a lot of illegal contractors working. And of course the New Zealand public misses out on taxes in that way as well.
LIV CASBEN: He's kept a keen eye on the Australian pilot program and says one of the big differences between the two countries is that New Zealand's scheme is industry led.
JERF VAN BEEK: We actually had a virtual industry sitting in a room for 12 weeks on end, just an hour on one afternoon per week. And we talked about what actually our issues are.
LIV CASBEN: There were teething problems with the scheme though weren't there? I understand there was at least one employer who was exploiting overseas workers?
JERF VAN BEEK: There always will be. We are dealing here with people. We have employers. We have labour providers. We have even employees themselves. We do have some alcohol problems. We do occasionally have issues with non-compliance of workers.
LIV CASBEN: Jerf van Beek says it's often more complicated brining workers in from other countries but it's worth it.
JERF VAN BEEK: You have got Samoan and Tongan people that are here for the fourth season. We've got a return rate of about 67 to 70 per cent of workers coming back year after year.
LIV CASBEN: A spokesperson for the Rudd Government says a similar scheme in Australia hasn't been as widely accessed because there's enough local labour available.
