The parliamentary committee on migration is looking at ways to replace the 70,000 backpackers who typically pick up to 60 per cent of some fruit and vegetable crops but are missing from Australia's farms.
School leavers who spend a gap year picking fruit could get a discount on their university loans under a plan put forward by a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry.
Liberal, Nationals and Labor members of the committee endorsed proposals in its interim report including the idea of a "Gap Year at Home" program that would encourage school and university graduates to spend time doing agricultural and horticultural work.Committee chair Julian Leeser, a Liberal MP, said with far fewer jobs available in industries such as hospitality, following the harvest trail was a good alternative.
For the next year, the committee recommends, unemployed people who move to the country should be given one-off payments to help with accommodation and moving expenses and be allowed to keep their JobSeeker benefits even as they are being paid for farm work.
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