The Federal Labor Government’s Jobs and Skills Summit has failed to deliver a plan to fix the ag worker shortage crisis currently facing regional NSW, and will go down in the history books as yet another Labor talkfest.
NSW Deputy Premier and Leader of the NSW Nationals Paul Toole said the Federal Government had every opportunity to show leadership and deliver real solutions over the last two days but squandered the opportunity.
“My hope for this Jobs and Skills Summit was to see real solutions to fix the ag worker shortage crisis, but all we saw was Labor turn a two-day talkfest into an ongoing roundtable,” Mr Toole said.
“With summer harvest coming up across NSW, farmers need to begin sourcing workers now and the only thing Labor has been able to sauce is the party pies at the Jobs and Skills Summit.
“Ag deserves better than a working group and a path to white paper, it needs action now.”
Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders said while the summit had added 9,000 more regional migrant places across the country, it is not enough to make a significant dent in the 172,000 ag worker shortfall.
“The NSW Government has already undertaken a range of measures to address the situation including AgSkilled 2.0 and HelpHarvest NSW and we stand ready to work with the Commonwealth to assist further,” Mr Saunders said.
“While the Jobs and Skills Summit may have had the best intentions going in, it has failed to make a significant dent on the 172,000 ag worker shortfall across Australia.
“The Federal Government needs to reinstate the Ag Workers Visa at the earliest possible opportunity to give our farmers a real solution to sourcing workers.”
