08/03/2019
A new report calls for a more targeted, more reliable and sustainable labour migration program.
The Government this week committed to tougher measures for labour-hire schemes.
Worker exploitation is said to have become the norm.
We support a national labour licencing reform agenda. We also call for more support for workers.
The University of Adelaide report, led by Joanna Howe, said Australian farmers often relied on illegal labour, or risked leaving their crops to fail.
But previous reports suggested that farmers were at the mercy of labour contractors and sometimes let their crops rot because the cost of labour is too high.
In one case we found labour contractors taking 30% of wages. And this related to workers with full entitlements to work.
