Backpackers and Pacific Islanders finding it tough going out in the fields

Comments

Anonymous
22 Dec 09
1:33 pm


While working in this industry I am unaware of where the shortage is.

Many backpackers expect to go into a fruitpicking job, gain a second working holiday visa and earn some travel cash. However this is not the case. Fruitpicking is not a money earning industry, most of the time. Farmers pay a contract rate which is flexible towards how much you pick/work. This means employers can get a higher labour rate, while backpackers increase their wage.

This is extremely hard work and coming into the summer season the heat creates extreme working environments. If a backpacker is prepared to do this work, and quit complaining about long hours, little pay and hostel conditions, maybe there will be more work readily available.

don scott
22 Dec 09
2:13 pm


I must say that this Thumbrella Forum will become “dangerous” if uninformed ‘hearsay’ editorial comment as above becomes the ‘norm’. I can assure readers that having being directly involved in helping WHM’s get work for at least 15 years that the Jill’s of the working holiday scene i.e. those who proclaim to be the job situation expert and that “there are absolutely no jobs in this town” are the very same people who have trouble getting work in their home country. I know for a fact that if you are a genuine job seeker and seriously want a job, you will find one. The Jills of the world are often those who expect others to find the jobs for them e.g. her comments about relying on agencies. I strongly suspect that her observations about “all the jobs being taken by Korean students and Grey Nomads” are based on ‘what she’s heard’ rather than experience. Anyone who has been involved in the fruit picking industry knows that you will not get a job by telephoning from the city and or relying on a distant agency. This forum picking up on such comments and turning them into editorial is definately a worry, especially when said article contains words such as “fraud, illegal foreign workers, unscrupulous” under the headline Backpackers and Pacific Islanders finding it tough going out in the fields.

Andrew Coldbeck
22 Dec 09
4:40 pm


Well said Don. Jill’s comments and experiences are so far removed from reality, in WA at least. We gave almost 600 people jobs in Kununurra alone this year.. 98% were backpackers.

Andrew Coldbeck
The Job Shop

sandi logan
22 Dec 09
4:52 pm


It’s unfortunate Thumbrella didn’t contact Immigration’s 24 hour media line (02 6264 2244) rather than calling our program area to test the allegations Jill has made. Had that occurred, we’d have been able to provide some context to the issues surrounding working holiday makers, fraud and second-year visas.

Don Scott has however pretty much nailed it: uninformed, baseless claims on a social media site don’t make for informed, factual reporting or information. It would seem websites and bar chat might be providing much of Jill’s “evidence”.

In short, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has successfully targeted criminal activity on websites being used to buy and sell information to obtain fraudulent visas following a spate of suspect website advertisements. More than 200 website advertisements have been removed since March 2009 and DIAC investigators are continuing to monitor a range of websites to identify suspect activity for subsequent action.

DIAC’s fraud crackdown relates largely to second working holiday visas which resulted in 64 visa cancellations and 19 further visas being considered for cancellation. One man has also been convicted of fraud.

We have also established a 2nd working holiday visa integrity unit, which focuses on ensuring visa applicants have completed claimed regional work. More than 100 fraudulent regional work claims have been identified in 2008-09.

The department is encouraging people who have information about immigration fraud to contact the department’s Dob-in Line on 1800 009 623.

Martin Lane
22 Dec 09
5:34 pm


Thanks for the comments everyone

Don, we are not suggesting Jill’s experience is typical, merely that it is worthy of discussion. Making a lot of baseless allegations about her alleged unwillingness to help herself doesn’t really add to the debate though.

Sandi, thanks for the 24-hour media hotline number. However, in my experience, it’s usually better to speak to a senior member of staff at DIAC (as we do, frequently) rather than an answering machine.

Cheers

Martin – Thumbrella

sandi logan
22 Dec 09
5:39 pm


Martin…you’re welcome (about offering details of our 24 hour media line). I am not aware you have ever called us, and I would be very surprised if you had to speak to an answering machine. We have operated a 24/7 media hotline for more than four years staffed by a real human being.

sandi logan
22 Dec 09
5:50 pm


Hey Martin…guess what? I just called you and got your answering machine! Talk about the pot calling the kettle!

Martin Lane
22 Dec 09
6:41 pm


Thanks Sandi

As I said, we regularly speak to senior members of staff at DIAC regarding these issues and they are regular speakers at our annual conference – http://www.abic.thumbrella.com.au.

Sorry I missed your call – you must have called my landline as my mobile is always switched on. However, I don’t – and have never claimed to – operate 24 hours a day.

Cheers

Martin – Thumbrella

don scott
23 Dec 09
12:40 pm


Sorry Martin but we thought the debate ‘was’ about “baseless allegations”.
We certainly didn’t mean to pick on poor ole Jill’s comments per se, it was more the fact that you deemed them “worthy of discussion”.
What part of them though?
The bit about “Korean students and Grey Nomads (who don’t even want second year visa’s) taking all the jobs”?
Or, that in spite of “every person she meets who has a second year visa not doing a single days work to get it”, Jill is moved to write to a backpacker industry blogg about it rather than join them and get her second year visa the same way?
Or, was it the bit about, “I called the harvest Trail and Travellers at Work, neither of whom could help. I emailed every working hostel that boasted that they deal with farmers direct and get work for you, im yet to get a single reply, 4 months later. I joined the agency that places fruit pickers 2 months ago, yet to get a call….Its been beyond a joke, there is NO shortage of fruit pickers”………”i have luckily managed to find a job though, through a friend of a friend of a friend”?

Martin, if you thought Jill’s comments “worthy of discussion”, then you’ll be blown away and truly amazed by the hundreds of other working holiday backpacker bloggs we could send you. Here’s an example http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin.....2055776881
Check out the after comments to this guys moan.

Our bottom line about 2nd year visa’s is that, hell, if all these people are so determined to stay in Australia for another year without working (i.e. “taking Australian jobs”), then surely that means they’re living off money they bring from home. Thats a good thing isn’t it?

Andrew Smith AIEC Europe
23 Dec 09
1:45 pm


Depends where, recent comments from Shepparton and Cobram re. one crop, cherries, that first heat then rain had precluded need for pickers in December, but same farmers said that they were also worried that pickers would not return in the new year….

what do you expect
24 Dec 09
1:47 pm


if i searched for work the way jill does, I too would be sitting around waiting for my ‘divine right’ to get a job

Macca
27 Jan 10
6:04 pm


Competition is for real in the Harvest Industry. The Swan Hill summit was held to discuss the redundant of Victorian fruit growers to sign more than the 56 Pacific Island Seasonal workers from the proposed 5000 that has been to put forward by the Federal Government.
Another proposal was for 2500 East Timorese to join the harvest fields.
It is disappointing that no representative from the backpacker industry was notified of these work summits as they are the largest single source of labour in the industry bring in and leaving money in area’s of need.
Jill is right in saying there are are lot of international students working on the harvest fields. In 2008-09 there were 320,368 student visa’s granted a 15% increase, lead by India followed by China and Korea which are all well noticed in the fields this season.
For the first time in years we are seeing lot of new refugees come into the industry
She is also right to say there are more Greynomads in the fields as the economy down turn has torn into their superannuation they have no other choice.
For many years fruit, vegetables and wheat where left to rot on the ground but once the backpacker come into the industry other organizations have taken note.
She is wrong to say many backpackers have not earn their second year with hard work as many have worked in many other ways other than in the harvest industry. I can only admire those involved in rebuilding after the Queensland floods and the Victorian bushfires.
Jill might be like many Australians that do not how to find work but they do have assistance unlike someone from another country going for the first job
While the competition might be there in many area’s the harvest would not be completed with out the backpacker

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