In its desperate attempt to get in workers to fill in the semi-skilled and skilled shortages, the Australian Federal Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, announced the launch of a new Agriculture visa from September 2021.
“The announcement and the start date of an agricultural visa, specific for agriculture, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled will be well before Christmas,” said Littleproud.
With the launch of this visa thousands of overseas and offshore farm workers will be able to fill in the shortages in the farming- horticulture, meat processing, fishery and forestry sectors. The workers coming into Australia will just not get to work but also stay through the permanent residence pathway that will be made available for these visa holders.
While the participating countries have not been Asian nations are most likely to make it to the list. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the government would negotiate with individual countries to join the scheme.
The COVID pandemic has put a huge pressure on the international workforce and accentuated the farmers’ reliance on overseas workers/migrants. The Australian Agriculture sector now faces a 30,000 worker shortage. Part of this shortage comes from the British backpackers [Working Holiday Makers] who are no longer required to complete farm work as part of their visa requirement. This in turn has fueled the shortage of farm workers which the new Agriculture visa aims to make up for.
The Agriculture Minister announced that regulations to enable the creation of the Australian Agriculture visa will be in place by the end of September 2021.