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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-02 Daily Xml
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Seasonal Jobs

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:10): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Can the minister please update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is supporting jobs in South Australia through the Seasonal Jobs campaign?

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (15:10): Yes, I can; and I thank the member for Heysen for his important question. He knows only too well the seasonal jobs that are required through the harvest, through the pruning, through the picking, the packing, the planting and the processing in the ag sector.

It's important to note that the state government, with the aid of PIRSA, have set up the Seasonal Jobs website. That has been critically important with the pressure on our seasonal workforce, particularly with the COVID-19 impact and the reliance that we traditionally have on overseas travellers—with the backpackers and visa holders—when coming into a harvest season. It is of paramount importance that we do have a workforce there on the ground so that we can pick the produce, get it to the pack houses, process it and make sure we can get it to our markets. We note that through COVID-19 the ag sector was more important than ever, with putting food on the table, making sure that people had the requirements that they needed going through that uncertainty.

The Seasonal Jobs website has been critically instrumental in linking both the employer with those jobseekers and the employment agencies, and also linking up the accommodation providers, with the adjusting that they had to do with accommodating a workforce, making sure that we had a call on South Australians to be a part of the ag sector, particularly when it comes to those seasonal jobs. Here in South Australia the requirement is about 24,000 through the season, and it is critical that we actually have those jobs in place in time to pick and harvest the produce.

As I said, if you want to be a picker, a packer, a processor, a planter or a pruner, if you want a job we need you. That was the motto that we used coming into this current season. Currently, we've got the citrus season in the Riverland and we've got the vine pruning season coming up in all of the grape growing districts around South Australia. It's more important than ever that we actually link up those people who need the work with those people who are providing the work.

Again, those businesses are looking for a workforce, and just to name a few: Beston Global Food were looking for production workers, SA Mushrooms were looking for compost managers, Select Harvests were needing orchard managers, Banrock Station was needing rangers, Australian Fishing Enterprises were needing deckhands, SunPork were needing piggery attendants, Bremco Trading were looking for milkers and Jumbuck Pastoral were looking for station hands.

This typifies the importance in the ag sector in regional South Australia of linking up a workforce that traditionally was always there at the front gate. Of course, the COVID-19 impacts have really cast a doubt, but what I can say is that South Australians and those visitors have stepped up to the plate. That website has seen more than 47,000 views in a two-week period, and that is outstanding here in South Australia because we know that some of that workforce that has been displaced through job losses—whether it's in hospitality or the businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic—has seen South Australians step up to the plate. Really, it was about whether they wanted to work in the open spaces in a team environment: if they were prepared to work hard, they would get paid well.

What we are seeing now is that those South Australians, that workforce, have stepped up to the plate. As I understand it, the ag sector, the horticulture sector, viticulture, fisheries and forests are all receiving people looking for work, satisfying the needs of those businesses so that we actually can continue to simulate our economy, making sure that our food economy is addressed with both the needs of harvesting and processing and moving on. I think it is important to note: those people out there, if you want a job, we need you. If you want to be a picker, packer, processor, planter or a pruner, get on to the Seasonal Jobs SA website and be a part of that ag workforce.

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