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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 659 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 15 September 2020 by Mrs L.M. Harvey

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — METROPOLITAN HORTICULTURE WORKERS

659. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:

I have a supplementary question. I thank the Premier and note his answer. This is a local, Western Australian labour shortage issue. What is the Premier going to do to assist metropolitan fruit and vegetable growers who are facing financial ruin this year because they cannot get workers?

Mr M. McGOWAN replied:

It is not only a Western Australian issue; it is also a national issue. It is happening across Australia. The Joint Standing Committee on Migration handed down its report on the working holiday maker program either yesterday or today. It has recommended —

� for the next 12 months, the Government —

That is, the federal government —

enable workers to stay on JobSeeker payments while undertaking low paid agricultural and horticultural work.

It also recommended —

� for the next 12 months the Government —

Again, federal —

establish a one-off payment to help with the travel and accommodation costs incurred, to be paid after a certain period of time working in regional, rural and remote areas.

We have already done that in Western Australia. It also recommended that the federal government —

� urgently develop and implement a 'Have a Gap Year at Home Campaign' to attract young Australians, particularly the current cohort of Year 12s and university graduates, to undertake regional work.

In terms of people in the city, if there are market gardens within the metropolitan boundaries, the clear way to deal with that is by allowing people on JobSeeker to keep their JobSeeker payments and get some additional payments on top. That does not accord with our traditional understanding of welfare, whereby if somebody undertakes paid work, their welfare payments will naturally diminish, but these are extraordinary circumstances. We work cooperatively with the commonwealth, but the state government has done its bit. We ask the commonwealth government to help us with this problem.