Australia looks to Vietnam for farm workers as first MOU under agriculture visa is signed

Workers from Vietnam will be the first to be employed on Australian farms under its fledgling agriculture-specific visa program. 

Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said the first memorandum of understanding (MOU) under the Australian Agriculture Visa Program had today been signed with Vietnam.

“Australia and Vietnam share a strong and optimistic agenda in our relationship,” Ms Payne said in a statement.

But it is not clear when the first workers would arrive or how many workers were likely to be employed through the visa scheme.

It is also not clear if the Vietnamese workers would be be skilled or unskilled.

A Nationals ‘achievement’

The agriculture visa has been a source of contention between Liberal and Nationals MPs for several years.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison first lent his support for an agriculture-specific visa in October 2018, but it was not until a UK trade deal last year that the Nationals won a firm commitment for the new visa.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud welcomed the MOU with Vietnam and said the visa was “one of the biggest achievements of The Nationals this term”.

“While [I] acknowledged some of [my] Coalition colleagues had struggled to understand the importance of an ag visa, the Nationals’ tenacity in finalising the visa will bring about the biggest structural change to the agricultural workforce in our nation’s history.”

Calls for opposition support

Mr Littleproud, who previously took a swipe at Ms Payne for holding up the visa process, called on the opposition to declare its support for the agriculture visa, should it win the upcoming election.

Labor has not yet said if it would commit to maintaining the new visa and it is possible it would seek to make some changes.

Shadow Agriculture Minister Julie Collins described Ms Payne’s statement as “more bluster” from the government.

“The government should come clean on the details of the MoU and when workers are expected on farms,” Ms Collins said.

Greens Senator Nick McKim today put forward a notice of a disallowance motion on legislation relating to the visa, but with the federal election likely to be called within days, the debate is not expected to be heard.

“We have lodged this disallowance because of a range of concerns that have been raised about the regulations as they are currently drafted,” Senator McKim said.

Long before Australia closed its borders to deal with COVID-19, Australian farmers had called for a new visa to recruit farm workers, skilled and unskilled.

There were estimates the horticulture sector required an extra 26,000 workers during the height of the pandemic, but industry sources on Monday said the figure was currently closer to 10,000.

Meanwhile, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, which recruits un-skilled and semi-skilled workers from the Pacific and Timor-Leste, has approved an additional 55,000 workers to take up Australian-based jobs in agriculture, meat processing, aged care, hospitality and tourism.

A recent senate inquiry, however, has heard how workers from the Pacific are being left with as little as $100 take-home pay each week.