Education, skills and labour supply
a) better business performance, along with the continued widespread availability of appropriate tertiary study opportunities
b) an enhanced partnership approach to training and education, building on the FarmBis model, so farmers, industry and government increasingly adopt a culture of continuous improvement through learning opportunities
c) a revision of policies affecting short stay, unskilled migration to attract a greater number of foreign workers into seasonal jobs, including tax arrangements that are a disincentive for non-residents and Working Holiday Maker visa holders
d) collaboration between representative organisations to provide information and examples of best employment practice, to enable and encourage businesses to improve performance, attract appropriately skilled new staff and retain existing staff.
Government response
Recomendation 5(a)
Agree.
The Australian Government believes that appropriate tertiary study opportunities in the agriculture and food sector should continue to be widely available.
Ensuring sufficient education opportunities for regional students remains a priority for the Government. In 2006, the Government is providing $41.8 million in funding for Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarships to assist students who incur additional accommodation costs in moving from rural and regional areas in order to undertake higher education.
The Government provides regional loading to higher education providers to assist with the higher costs of delivering courses at regional campuses. In 2006, $29.2 million will be provided through this loading.
Agriculture units of study are funded at the highest rate under the Commonwealth Grants Scheme (CGS).
The Government notes that declining student demand for university agriculture courses is likely to be the main factor that could contribute to courses becoming unviable.
The Government is also strongly committed to supporting vocational and technical education and training opportunities for all Australians. This commitment is supported by the Government’s contribution to the states and territories of almost $5 billion to support their training systems over the years 2005 to 2008 under the Commonwealth–State Agreement for Skilling Australia’s Workforce. This includes $215 million of additional funding and represents an annual average real increase in funding of 4.1 per cent compared with 2004. This additional funding, if matched by the states and territories and used for training places, will provide up to 128,000 additional training places across Australia.
To support appropriate vocational and technical education and training opportunities in the agriculture and food sectors, the Government funded the Agri-Food Industry Skills Council $1.53 million dollars in 2005-06 to develop nationally recognised qualifications for industry. This includes reviewing and improving agriculture and food processing related training package qualifications to ensure competency standards describe the skills and knowledge required by these industry sectors.
Recomendation 5(b)
Noted.
The Government supports a focus on building a culture of continuous learning in rural industries. Enhancing the skills of farmers is important for improving the competitiveness, profitability and sustainability of the agricultural sector and promoting the self-reliance and capability of primary producers. The ongoing involvement by the Government in farmer training and education is important to maintaining momentum in this area.
The Government is currently evaluating the Agriculture Advancing Australia (AAA) package to make sure AAA programes remain relevant and continue to help rural industries and producers adapt to changing circumstances.
Recomendation 5(c)
Disagree — action on migration issues has already been undertaken.
Changes were made to the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visa in November 2005 and July 2006, which provide an incentive to work in these industries. These changes will enable WHM visa holders who have worked for a minimum of three months (in a wide range of primary industry activities) to apply for a second WHM visa. This has significantly expanded the stock of WHM visa holders available to meet the seasonal demand for labour in these industries.
The focus of Australia’s employer sponsored temporary and permanent migration arrangements is on the recruitment of skilled overseas workers for employment in skilled (managerial, professional, associate professional and trade) occupations. While concessional regional arrangements make some provision for the recruitment of overseas workers for employment in semi-skilled occupations, there is no provision for the recruitment of overseas workers for employment in unskilled (including labouring) occupations.
The Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education References Committee is currently undertaking an Inquiry into Pacific Region Seasonal Contract Labour. The committee took evidence about the extent to which the seasonal demand for labour in the agricultural and horticultural industries can be met from the domestic labour market and existing migration arrangements (especially the WHM visa). The committee is due to report on 18 October 2006 and the Government will consider this report. The design of any proposed scheme would need to take account of Australia’s obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). For example, any proposed seasonal worker scheme that sought to favour nationals from certain countries might contravene Australia’s GATS obligations.
The proposal to align the resident and non-resident personal income tax withholding rates is not supported. Such a change would raise tax system compliance issues, including potential Australian tax revenue loss from the reduced incentive for concessionally taxed non-residents to submit a final Australian tax return. It would also generate equity and tax system complexity issues associated with creating another class of concessionally taxed non-residents and have uncertain labour market effects on other industries facing labour shortages.
Recomendation 5(d)
Agree.
The Government, through the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, will continue to work with the agriculture and food sector and other Government portfolios to raise employer awareness of the high performance workplace employment model and encourage its adoption by the agriculture and food industry.
It is vital for the agriculture and food sector, as well as many other industries, that workplace arrangements are flexible to allow for individual business circumstances. The Work Choices reforms have created a workplace relations system which allows greater flexibility. These reforms will assist agriculture and food businesses to develop a reputation as an ‘employer of choice’ with workplace arrangements that will help retain current employees and attract new employees.
The Government has programes in place to encourage Australians, in particular unemployed Australians and Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visa holders, to participate in harvest related work. The Government plays an important role in addressing the seasonal harvest labour needs of growers by funding both the Harvest Labour Service (HLS) and the National Harvest Labour Information Service (NHLIS) programes.
The HLS providers assist growers by mobilising labour in harvest areas where considerable numbers of out of area workers are required during peak harvest times. The NHLIS works closely with HLS providers to coordinate and disseminate harvest labour information across Australia (through the JobSearch Harvest Trail website).
28 Jan 2009