THE National Farmers’ Federation is calling for a study into the employment needs of Australia’s food supply chain to recognise the viability of agricultural businesses.

Jobs and Skills Australia has been commissioned to undertake a capacity study on the workforce needs of the food supply chain to support future policy development and workforce planning.

In its submission to the study, the NFF says one of the main issues is the perception of agricultural employment.

“Perhaps the most troubling obstacle is the conventional wisdom which conceives of agriculture and farm work as ‘old fashioned’ with limited career pathways, remuneration, or social status,” the submission said.

“While the reality is very different — with much ag’ work highly skilled, well paid, and using cutting edge technologies — these perceptions contribute to the difficulties which the sector faces attracting and retaining workers.

“The Jobs and Skills Australia’s (JSA) Food Supply Chain Capacity study (the Study) is an opportunity to challenge those perceptions and propose measures which will help the sector to address them.”

The NFF identified three core issues causing skills and labour shortages in the industry:

• A workplace relation system which, is a compliance minefield rather than a rationale arbiter of rights and duties.
• A VET system with structural problems which prevent it from delivering the skills which the industry need.
• A migration system which is a confusing and expensive political football and drives costs and frustration as much as productivity.

The NFF says one of the main omissions in the opening literature about the study has been absence of any discussion about the viability of agricultural businesses.

“The truth — which may be so obvious that it is easy to forget — is that a job exists only because a business has made the decision that it needs a service which the worker can provide. If there is no business, then there is no such need,” the submission said.

Need for infrastructure in remote areas

Both the NFF and JSA highlighted issues with infrastructure in regional areas as a limiting factor for prospective agricultural workers.

The NFF says there is one particular issues that needs to be addressed.

“One major issue affecting attraction and retention of farm workers is the lack of housing and accommodation development in regional communities,” the statement says.

Without adequate accommodation options, many actual and potential workers cannot viably sustain or consider a life in regional and remote communities.”

Calls for specialist agricultural visa

The NFF says a need for migrant workers in the agriculture sector needs to be recognised. It said there were limitations to the special skills visa and one needed to be developed for agriculture.

“While the Albanese Government axed the development of a dedicated agriculture visa to prioritise the PALM scheme, the NFF remains steadfast in the necessity of expanded migration settings to supplement the domestic workforce in agriculture,” the submission says.

“The conditions that initiated the calls for a dedicated Australian Agricultural Visa (AAV) still exist. The AAV was announced in the context of the UK-AUS free-trade agreement, which removed the requirement for UK backpackers to work 88 days on-farm to renew their visa. Almost 75pc of the respondents to the NFF’s recent labour survey characterised the consequences of this change (alone) as significant to catastrophic. This will result in a 20pc to 25pc reduction in the available seasonal workforce.”