The program to encourage people living on welfare to work on farms has been declared a failure. This has put the Govt. under pressure to create a new Agriculture Visa in Australia. The demand for a dedicated visa for Agriculture has been growing in Australia to meet the shortage of labor.
The Seasonal Work Incentives Trial, a 2-year program, has so far only placed 333 people. With only six months left, it has fallen short of its 7,600 places. In these two years, the take-up rate has only been around 4 or 5 percent.
Ben Rogers of National Farmers’ Federation has deemed the program a failure. He says that local seasonal workers are not interested in taking up harvest jobs.
PM Scott Morrison had even warned that benefits would be reduced for people if they did not take up local jobs. The program also offers a cash incentive of $5,000 to people who took up harvest jobs. Though the program was aggressively promoted by the Dept. of Jobs, it has not worked so far.
There is a huge demand for labor in Australian farms. So far, this program has failed to meet this demand which effectively opens the doors for strong consideration and approval of Migrants willing to live and work in Agricultural sector in Australia