A NEW study has confirmed what shadow tourism and trade minister Kevin Hogan said a few weeks ago when he and I toured the Sunraysia and Swan Hill region – we are an “economic powerhouse.”
The latest Centre for International Economics’ Contribution of Australian Horticulture Industry report has crowned the Mildura-Swan Hill region as the Australia’s most valuable horticultural region.
Better still, the region’s gross value of production will grow more than anywhere else in the nation, by 32 per cent (from $1.7 billion in 2020-21) to $2.2 billion per annum in 2029-30.
The report states for every dollar of value the horticulture sector generates, an additional 27.6 cents is created in the rest of the economy.
We are pulling more than our weight.
Therefore, we must fight to protect our incredibly valuable horticulture industry, particularly noting the worker shortage crisis and the resumption of buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin.
There are concerns the Albanese Labor government’s industrial relations shake-up will drive down productivity and make producers unviable.
The union-led “same job, same pay” policy and a mandatory minimum 30-hour working week threatens the viability of initiatives such as the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, with workers disincentivised because they will be paid the same, no matter how much work they do – or do not do.
Horticulture producers tell me they are considering walking away from the PALM scheme as a result due to the exorbitant cost and level of bureaucratic red tape that the government will impose.
The Federal Government also increased the minimum wage an employer must pay a migrant worker on a temporary work visa, hiking the temporary skilled migration income threshold from $53,900 to $70,000.
As Water Minister Tanya Plibersek ramps up water buybacks, growers are genuinely concerned, at a time when Australia should be capitalising on projected growth and improving national and global food security.
