Here we are at the cusp of the fruit picking season and the nation's food bowl is desperately short of pickers, and at the same time the youth unemployment situation in western Sydney is stuck at seventeen percent.
The Hunter Valley needs people to bring in the grape crop and in the Riverina and the MIA the citrus crop will soon need busy hands if it is not to rot on the trees. Months of work is available as the various crops ripen and many people earn their entire years living during the fruit season - and have a long holiday for the rest of the year.
It seems that the unemployed young people of western Sydney are just not interested. They say they want a job - but demand that it be in the city and just a short bus ride away from home. They cling to their nice warm bed and Mum's cooking - and of course they will not be separated from those computer games and hanging out at the Mall with their mates.
Sadly, this nation's food supply rests in the hands of backpackers who come here on a holiday and have a working visa - and this has been extended for an additional three months for those who choose to work in rural areas. It is not unusual for a picker to earn $ 250 a day and for many overseas people that is a big reason to visit Australia.
We need to enforce the principle of the unemployed travelling to where jobs are available. We are no longer a country predominantly engaged in manufacturing. The jobs spectrum is widening and we can not afford to ignore job opportunities because they are in an inconvenient location to the unemployed.
Those taking up this challenge need to be prepared. Fruit pickers are paid by the amount of fruit they pick. What they turn in is weighed and they are reimbursed at a stipulated rate per kilo. Many travel farm to farm in vans and use these as their travelling home, but most farms have "pickers quarters ", although these range widely in quality. At least they provide a dry roof over the visitors head and it is usual for itinerant pickers to have their own sleeping bag. Communal cooking facilities are provided and these working groups usually have a welcoming cameradie.
It is easy to see why Sydney's unemployed are timid about taking the plunge. Many have never spent a night away from their homes and this seems a big step into the unknown. Many parents will not welcome the idea and some will insist that it is too big a risk, but most will benefit from a "growing up "experience that will make them much fitter for their life ahead.
Unfortunately, there is a down side. Groups of young people far from home are attracted to alcohol and those earning big money can be tempted by the ever present gambling. Over half a century ago many young people sought their fortune by travelling to north Queensland and finding work cutting cane. It was dirty, back breaking work and it paid big money, but few returned with a big stash of money. The various vices that cling to wherever big money is present took it's toll.
Perhaps we are criticising the unemployed of western Sydney unfairly. Maybe we should be setting up information and training clinics to present the opportunities offering and give details of exactly what is involved. It would be helpful if they could determine what skills are needed for fruit harvesting and what kit they will need to take to create their living conditions. If we expect young people to take the big plunge they are unlikely to step into the unknown without the wealth of knowledge that goes with taking up any new job - and at present that does not exist.
There is also an opportunity to schedule work so that they are heading to a confirmed job and it should be possible to chart progress from farm to farm and from crop to crop as it ripens and needs picking. It is a big ask to expect young people to travel to a distant district on the promise that work may be available, but with no certainty - with the hope that there will be accommodation if work is offered - and with little knowledge of what will be expected of them if all this eventuates.
Centrelink - The Farmers Federation - the Employment Bureaus - need to combine their talents to marshal this lucrative work stream of young people to where they are needed. They need the right information to make the right decisions, and they need a degree of certainty to take up what is a vastly different lifestyle.
What seems to be lacking at the moment is the cohesion between the government and agriculture to present the fruit picking package as a going concern to a work force that badly needs work. Not all the unemployed will be suitable for this measure, but with the right presentation we could quickly fill this labour deficient void !
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