Staff shortage continues to cripple agriculture industry despite new tripartite group

A north-west pastoral group says staffing shortages in the agriculture and meat processing sectors remain dire despite the Australian Government’s promise to pursue solutions. The drought which has been plaguing the pastoral industry’s workforce was high on the agenda of this year’s Kimberley Pilbara Cattlemen’s Association Conference, held in Broome earlier this month. Whether led by COVID-19’s stifling of the international workforce or a decline in local interest, industry leaders are perplexed as to the cause. “I’m trying to work out where the workforce disappeared to over COVID,” KPCA president Jak Andrews said. “I don’t know a single pastoralist that hasn’t mentioned to me this year that they are having trouble sourcing staff and retaining staff.” Mr Andrews, elected earlier this year, is a station manager at Roebuck Plains Station. “It has been challenging,” he said. “There were times when we were operating with two people when we would normally operate with 15. “You only have to get on platforms like Facebook and see every day there is someone advertising for station hands, pilots or truck drivers.” There have been numerous attempts to tackle the staffing shortages head-on by Government and private agencies. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced during the Jobs and Skills summit held in Canberra last month his intention to establish a tripartite working group to pursue solutions to better skill, attract and retain workers in the agriculture and meat processing sectors. “Workforce shortages continue to be a key issue across the agriculture sector,” he said in an address at the KPCA conference last week in Broome. “This working group, which will include members from agriculture industry, unions and government, will meet regularly over the next 12 months to make sure that the jobs and skills needs of agriculture are appropriately considered and reflected in the Government’s Employment White Paper.” The Employment White Paper is set to provide a roadmap to build Australia’s workforce and will be released within the next year. Despite including key figures in the agricultural industry, Mr Andrews said this was the first he was hearing of Mr Watt’s tripartite working group. “It’s new to me,” he said. “I haven’t gotten across a lot of the details yet. Whatever happens, (solutions) aren’t going to happen overnight. We all know how red tape works - it takes a while.” “As an industry, we have to just keep pushing and warning people that it’s not just a topic today, it’s ongoing.” The tripartite group met for the first time on October 21.