As it stands, Victorian shearing bodies will be deprived of their usual intake of workers from outside the state, placing them under stress due to an already sparse local labour pool.
Based out of Euroa, Tenneriffe Rural Services contract shearer Andrew Mawson has described the current situation as a “life of unknown”.
“You’ve only got a certain number of shearers in Euroa, and there’s a shortage in the industry,” he said.
“I get the odd interstate shearer in, but that won’t happen with things going on at the moment. I’ve been shearing for 38 years and been contracting for over 20, and I could see the writing on the wall.
“When we get to October our work gets really busy, and if we have a wet season — which it looks like we are about to have — we rely on NSW workers to come in and give us a hand.
“But if COVID-19 keeps going, they’re not going to be able to come.”
The Retail Supply Chain Alliance, made up of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU), is pushing for a lift in working standards to coax locals into the agriculture industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our international borders are destined to remain closed for many months and unemployment in the regions due to COVID-19 — particularly amongst young people — is through the roof,” AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said.
“Farmers will need to attract Australians back into the agricultural workforce.”
However this is easier said than done, according to Mr Mawson.
“I am the president of the Shearer Training Group of Victoria and South Australia, so I get to see and hear about the whole situation,” he said.
“We are pushing to train kids, but they are hard to find and train — every time something goes wrong like this, they cut the funding back which makes it even harder to train them.”
Euroa’s John Harper, an independent shearer, said introducing provisory measures was helping maintain the skilled labour pool while avoiding community COVID-19 transmission at all costs.
“With some of the teams that I am working with, we ask some of the younger guys not to go into Shepparton to party and carry on the next few weeks while we try and get things under control,” he said.
“They have all been pretty good, staying around home, not playing up. It is not mandatory, but with the interests of the team and the people living around our area in mind we try to do our little bit extra, and that seems to be working out all right.”
But as a contractor who often relies on interstate workers, Mr Mawson called on the VFF to action a possible initiative where workers could cross the border for work purposes.
“(A shortage of workers) is something we will have to be prepared for and deal with,” he said. “Unless the VFF sees the writing on the wall and decides to bend the rules to let those who want to come from NSW, to do so.”
VFF media advisor Ryan Moloney said the organisation acknowledged that farmers were calling for agricultural permits to cross the NSW and SA borders to keep the country fed.
However, due to the coronavirus situation in Victoria, contractors in Mr Mawson’s position will have to remain on standby to review available options as the busier period approaches.
