Fruit pickers from Timor-Leste board a Qantas flight to Australia as they are flown in to harvest fruit amid a nationwide shortage
- Fruit pickers from Timor-Leste have boarded a Qantas plane to Australia
- Workers in face masks were seen waiting at Nicolau Lobato International Airport
- They are helping fill a critical labour shortage in the agriculture industry
Fruit pickers from Timor-Leste have boarded a Qantas plane to Australia to help with a critical labour shortage in the agriculture industry.
Dozens of workers in face masks were seen lining up on the tarmac at Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili on Wednesday.
According to Flightradar24, a Qantas aircraft touched down in Darwin on Wednesday morning from the Southeast Asian nation.
It was earlier reported Tasmania would welcome 150 workers from Timor-Leste in early December to help out with fruit picking.
Fruit pickers from Timor-Leste have boarded a Qantas plane to Australia to help with a critical labour shortage in the agriculture industry
Pacific Islander workers were recently allowed to bypass coronavirus travel bans to take on farm work – though the number who have flown into the country is only about 1,000 (stock)
They will be required to quarantine for a fortnight before beginning work
Pacific Islander workers were recently allowed to bypass coronavirus travel bans to take on farm work – though the number who have flown into the country is only about 1,000.
Australians are also being offered up to $6,000 in cash if they relocate to regional areas for farm work for just six weeks.
The cash lure was introduced a month ago, but only a meagre 148 people have signed up to the program.
Farms across the country have been scrambling to fill 26,000 jobs to harvest and pack produce after COVID-19 travel bans decimated their seasonal workforce, usually made of foreign workers.
The Morrison government is now launching a social media blitz to fill the vacant farm jobs.
Dozens of workers in face masks were seen lining up on the tarmac at Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili on Wednesday
The campaign will target 400,000 Australians and visa holders aged between 18 and 30 in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
Fruit and vegetable pickers, packers, pruners and planters are in demand across the three states.
At a recent online jobs fair, 26,012 jobs were on offer, but only 2716 job seekers attended.
To back up the Harvest Trail campaign, the federal government is offering short-term agricultural workers up to $6000 if they are Australian or $2000 if they are a visa holder with general work rights.
‘I want as many job seekers to consider a seasonal job because we know that our farmers are desperate for more workers,’ Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said.
‘The pandemic has been devastating particularly for young Australians, which is why the offer of seasonal work is such a great opportunity to earn a wage in a short period of time.’
The three-week social media campaign will target far northern and southern Queensland, as well as NSW and Victoria.
Pictured: East Timorese people board an airplane as they leave to go work in Australia