ATGA chair & CEO news

Securing the right tools of trade

A note from our chair

As we head toward crunch time in the season, one thing that’s key will be shoring up labour.

I am concerned about the upcoming labour season and the availability of workers. As a labour hire contractor (LHC), responses to advertisements have been very low – it’s not just difficult, it’s beyond that. While I think there’ll be people around, and there are things happening with the ag visa and opening of international borders, it’s important to get a head start. Speak to your preferred employers, LHCs, get your recruitment plans completed if you’re an approved employer (AE), because there is only so much time, and so few opportunities to get people here. The ATGA is also working to develop fact sheets to help growers understand their role and responsibilities, depending on how they recruit workers; whether they use LHCs, or are AEs, etc., so this may be helpful. As we speak, the ATGA is also out there trying to help growers who have identified restricted spring growth (RSG). The team has visited and taken samples across Sunraysia and consulted with plant pathologists, virologists and other experts to understand the causes of RSG. ATGA also hosted an online information session on RSG for all growers, which had high participation among growers, so that was great to see.

As Covid vaccination rates rise and movement resumes, we hope the team can see us growers more often, and we hope to get out a bit more ourselves! Happy festive season!

News from our CEO

Export registration is now complete and we’re looking forward to the season ahead.

The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) has been very strict with its desktop audits so far, and many registered patches have required amendments. In checking your registration, growers may find some patch boundaries have been slightly altered if they contained buildings or were on roads. I also had to change the registration name of most applicants – it must be listed as on your ABN. There will be several meetings on international trade over the coming months. The first, held in October, was with DAWE regarding South Korean protocol changes and updates to the workplan. We also just had Austrade’s market briefing webinar for ASEAN countries. Read more about marketing on page 32. We’re all aware that there will be challenges accessing harvest labour in all regions. The Federal Government recently declared the new agricultural worker visa (ag visa) operational. It will be operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through a visa program closely aligned to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme. The program is currently in development, and will set out management of worker welfare, sponsoring employer standards. The ATGA has been advocating for the establishment of a quarantine facility at Mildura Airport. In essence, international jets could land at the airport and seasonal workers could basically walk to their quarantine facility. While there have been a number of variables to consider at least we have people – including Mildura Rural City and Swan Hill councils’ mayors – discussing the proposal. Alongside this proposal, we’ve had discussions with the state Member for Mildura on the issue of on-farm accommodation. The Victorian Government recently announced a small win, allowing accommodation for up to 10 workers on properties of at least 40 hectares. While that might be insignificant for the table grape industry’s requirements, it is a starting point for overhauling on-farm accommodation regulations. In the past, the ATGA has made comment on the idea of a national biosecurity levy – but now there is an urgent need to revisit this. Currently, growers have a collective liability under the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed (EPPRD) to government of about $25,000. This increases each year, as growers are obligated by legislation to pay eradication expenses of exotic pests (e.g., fruit fly species in the Torres Strait). Unlike other industries, our industry does not yet have a biosecurity levy from which to pay these eradication costs directly. While changing the levy process will take some time, due to administrative requirements to satisfy the government processes, we’ll provide more information in the coming months. v

Jeremey Boyd | Chair Jeff Scott | CEO