The Harvest Trail Information Service (HTIS) connects workers with farm jobs to help growers ensure they have staff to pick, pack and maintain their crops. Strong connections with industry groups and grower associations across the country give the HTIS an unique perspective on the horticulture labour landscape.

Most of the regional Harvest Trail Services (HTS) offices located in all of the major horticulture growing areas in Australia have now started to report an oversupply of labour. They further report that this oversupply is being dominated by temporary visa holders.

The return of Working Holiday Makers (WHMs) into the country started to accelerate towards the back end of 2022, providing much relief for small to medium sized growers who employed many of them as seasonal workers.

The impact of COVID on working holidaymakers is evident from early 2020–2022. 

According to the Department of Home Affairs, there were 136,621 backpackers in Australia at the end of March 2023, up from a low of 19,324 at the end of 2021.

HTIS reports that ore activity on social media has been evident, with backpacker pages being flooded with visa holders looking for work.

Many are now enquiring about work anywhere in Australia and are prepared to travel to areas requiring their services – even interstate if necessary.

Growers are having workers turn up on farms unannounced creating biosecurity risks and HTS Offices across the country are reporting extensive waitlists (many in the hundreds) and are unable to refer labour to growers due to a lack of vacancies.

The continued increase in WHM visa holders, Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme workers and international students entering or re-entering the country is pushing the industry into an oversupply of labour for unskilled roles.

In contrast, skilled and semi-skilled positions are still vacant in many areas. These include machinery operators, tractor drivers, farm hands, spray rig operators, truck drivers and forklift operators.

The PALM scheme had 36,374 workers employed in the country at the end of February 2023. The majority 26,082 (71.7%) of those were working in agriculture/horticulture.

In addition to those PALM workers already in the country, at the end of February there were another 37,013 pre-screened workers awaiting job offers from Australian Approved Employers.

HTIS says the expanded PALM scheme is likely to become a permanent feature of the horticulture workforce as more farms have now experienced it, appear to be satisfied with the outcomes and are, therefore, likely to retain these workers.

While the number of workers from Papua-New Guinea (PNG) has been significantly lower than other participating countries under the PALM scheme, there has been a declared intention by the leaders of both Australia and PNG to significantly boost that country’s participation. Prime Minister Marape has indicated the ambition to deploy 8000 PNG workers to Australia under the PALM scheme.

In addition, the new Pacific Engagement Visa will allow up to 3000 nationals of Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste to migrate to Australia as permanent residents each year. Applicants will be free to choose where they would like to live, work and study in Australia. There will be no restrictions on work location, industry or employer.

International students often undertake seasonal horticulture work. The temporary pandemic-induced relaxation of working hours limits encouraged many to come to Australia under student visas to access full-time jobs with numbers increasing significantly from 2021.

The Government has announced working hours limits would return from1 July 2023, but with an increase to 48 hours per fortnight compared to 40 hours pre-pandemic.

In addition to the above-mentioned cohorts of workers, there are also other temporary visa holders such as Bridging visas which allow them to work legitimately in the country as well as the resident population of unemployed Australians.

The role of the Harvest Trail Information Service (HTIS) is to redirect workers around Australia to areas in need.

Employers requiring seasonal labour are strongly encouraged to call the HTIS Contact Centre on 1800 062 332.

Operators can then direct workers into areas requiring labour or directly to employers in need.

There is no cost to use the service.