Unskilled workers needed in Australia

09 February 2016 by News Desk   |   SHARE  

The government of Australia has relaxed visa rules to allow more unskilled workers to gain employment in the country.

Australia faces a major shortage of labour to work on farms, especially in the fruit-and-vegetable picking seasons.

Farmers have lobbied the government to relax visa rules in order to attract foreign workers because they can’t find workers locally.

Now the government is set to announce an expansion of the seasonal low-skilled worker program to agriculture for Pacific Island nations. The program already operates in the horticulture industry.

Over the past three years 8,600 visas have been issued under the scheme and 70 employers have found foreign workers as a result.

Darrell Todd, CEO of thinkingaustralia, says: “In the coming decade thousands of farmers, farm managers and key workers will be needed to replace the ageing rural workforce.

“This new change in unskilled visa rules will go some way to providing the workers needed on Australian farms, but many more skilled workers will be required in future.”

For example, there is currently a major shortage of sheep shearers in Australia and farmers are forced to import shearers from New Zealand, Ireland and Canada in order to meet quotas in sheep-shearing season.

Sheep shearing is not included in the new visa changes because it is considered a skill.