Who is going to pick the fruit ?

[Juliar]

How will the fruit get picked this time with all the Virus travel restrictions ?



Australian fruit being left to rot amid shortage of pickers
07/09/2020


Dead and dying abandoned water melons

Fruit across the nation is in danger of being left to rot due to a chronic shortage of fruit pickers on Australian farms says Sky News host Peta Credlin.

This is the "direct impact" of the shortage of international backpackers, Ms Credlin said.

Ms Credlin spoke with Piñata Farms Managing Director Gavin Scurr about the issues facing the industry.

Ms Scurr said in a normal season "we would have about 400 people harvesting and packing strawberries on our property here on the Sunshine Coast".

"At the moment we're struggling to get half that number".

"And that's due to the Australian border being closed, we understand why it is closed, however with the lack of backpackers and the seasonal workers, we're desperately short of labour".

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6188399424001

[Juliar]

“Why can’t Australians pick fruit?” | Warren Mundine’s Truth Talking, #3
by Good Sauce | 4 Sep, 2020 | Unlisted

Hosted by Warren Mundine, Truth Talking is live streamed to Facebook & YouTube where viewers can join the conversation with real time comments and questions as the panel discusses the important issues.

In this episode…
Australia is in recession with GDP down 7% with worse to come. Over a million Australians are unemployed, millions more on JobKeeper. But farmers can’t find workers to pick fruit.

Australia’s borders are closed. But in coming months tens of thousands of overseas workers will be given exemptions to work in parts of Australia with some of the highest unemployment rates.

Why can’t Australians pick fruit?

Hear what our Panel has to say: Warren Mundine with Jillian Kilby, James William, Steve Baxter & Gemma Tognini.


Brett Hilder • 3 days ago
It's not a career choice. (No one picks fruit in their own countries).

At 21 bucks an hour, a couple of months fruit picking doesn't even cover your moving expenses (twice) let alone leave a dollar left over to go towards a house deposit or a new shirt or a car or a mobile phone or a box of matches...

Then you return to the city having taken yourself away from the job market (and your friends) where the real action is.

Let me know when moving hundreds of k's make sense, financially, socially or strategically.

E. What was your last job?
FP. I was a fruit picker.
E. Sorry, we have 200 other applicants with more relevant experience.
FP. Oh.

The problem is not with young people, but decades of governments paying nothing but lip service to decentralisation in this country.

The ONLY govt ever to have a crack was the last WA state Liberal-National Party one with 'Royalties for Regions' which invested in towns like Karratha and provided some half decent infrastructure (which city people take for granted).

If this problem is ever going to be addressed, we have to abandon the sanctimonious hand-wringing and ask why young people choose to leave regional areas and move to the cities in the first place.

https://goodsauce.news/why-cant-austral ... talking-3/