Jan Davis: Jobs will not grow on farms

Around one in five young Tasmanians is currently unemployed. The proposed ‘earn or learn’ changes in the federal budget will have many of these young people rightly concerned as to their future prospects. In areas of high unemployment like Tasmania, there simply aren’t the jobs to go round; and there is little detail as yet as to what this would mean for them.

The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, suggested that ‘if people have to move for work that’s not the worst outcome in the world. It’s obviously better if you can get work near your home … but for hundreds and hundreds of years people have been moving in order to better their life … So I don’t think we should be necessarily heartbroken just because some people choose to move.’

There’s a big difference between someone deciding to move to take up a new job or for a new career opportunity; and someone being forced to move with no clear job pathway identified.

There’s no suggestion about how unemployed young Tasmanians can afford to move to the mainland, and what they would do when they got there. There’s no suggestion about working with local communities to create jobs that would enable these young people to stay close to their families and support networks.

A number of other politicians have suggested that farmers should be replacing backpackers working as fruit pickers or farm hands with young unemployed Tasmanians.

You get the picture – the farmer is an employer of last resort; they’ll take anyone no matter their qualifications or their work ethic. Yes, of course, send your cannon fodder to us down on the farm; we’ll absorb them in the paddock somewhere, out of sight, out of mind, off your agenda.

Well, it doesn’t quite work like that. Unlike politicians and their armies of highly-paid advisers and bureaucrats on defined benefit superannuation schemes, the average farming enterprise has reduced its labour force quite considerably over the past few decades.

You see, farmers are actually running businesses in a very competitive environment and with extremely low margins. They’re lean and mean because they have to be. Properties that once supported 20 or 30 staff are now run by the farmer, their spouse and perhaps one of the kids and a part time employee.

When they do require casual labour, they need the best they can get, the best they can lay their hands on. They want reliable people who turn up every day on time, who know what they are doing, who work fast, who don’t get distracted by their mobile phone or Facebook, and who understand the importance of the relationship between the work they do and the outcome for the farmer.

The reality is that jobs such as fruit picking and farm hand are not unskilled occupations. They require skill, speed, experience, and pride in the final product because often what they package in the orchard or the paddock is the final form of presentation to the market. In other words, this is what determines the end price a farmer will receive for their products.

Furthermore, these are generally not full time jobs – many are, by their very nature, seasonal. So, if young unemployed people were to work under the regime of the proposed ‘earn or learn’ changes, they could work on a farm for a month or two and then, if there are no other jobs, they’d have to restart their six-month waiting period before they could claim an unemployment benefit.

At the moment, there are good reasons why backpackers dominate this work. They are not interested in full-time jobs or a career; they are driven by the incentive to work fast and well and, usually, they are experienced at what they do.

Governments – and politicians – cannot abrogate their responsibilities for dealing with important social issues like unemployment. There are many options for addressing the significant issues identified in ensuring we encourage those who can work to do so; but, at the same time, maintain a resilient and sustainable welfare safety net.

Farmers are very aware of the key role they play in supporting local communities – but they are not responsible for delivering welfare outcomes within their business structures.

One would have hoped our politicians would have a better understanding of the situation facing regional communities in this state; we’d also like to think they know more about the agriculture industry than would seem to be reflected in these remarks.
TFGA chief executive Jan Davis