KEY POINTS:
New Zealand and Australia should be co-operating to recruit seasonal workers from the Pacific rather than competing, says a horticulture executive.
Australia's National Farmers Federation said this week that about 100,000 more workers were needed in the rural sector and called on the Australian Government to fill the gap with people from the Pacific Islands.
New Zealand relies on Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Kiribati for thousands of seasonal workers.
And Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Peter Silcock said he hoped that Australia would target workers from other Pacific islands with high unemployment, such as the Solomon Islands.
"We would be concerned if Australia targeted the same nations on which we have focused. Australia and New Zealand need to take a co-operative approach.
"We could learn a lot from each other, and work together to spread the benefits through more of the South Pacific."
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans told the Age newspaper he was looking at the New Zealand scheme of using unskilled workers from Pacific islands for seasonal work.
"New Zealand is trialling such a scheme and we are looking at how that is progressing and what lessons might be learned," he said.
New Zealand introduced its recognised seasonal workers (RSE) scheme after allegations that up to 80 per cent of contractors supplying seasonal labour had been operating outside the law.
The RSE scheme allows guest workers to be flown in from the Pacific for seven months of the year, but employers have to ensure the quality of their housing and take responsibility for overstayers.
- NZPA
