Farmers hope to start the new year with agriculture visa workers, but there are stumbling blocks
Agriculture visa was first announced in June 2021
To many, the Agricultural visa seemed to be a perfect visa to attract Southeast Asian farm hands to fix labour shortages within the Australian agriculture industry.
The Australian Agriculture visa is designed for primary industry sectors, including horticulture, meat processing, dairy, wool, grains, fisheries (including aquaculture) and forestry.
According to Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, the agriculture visa "came into effect" on October 1
However, it has been there for four months now, and no overseas workers have arrived under the new scheme because no countries have signed up for it.
So what is causing the delays in the implementation of the Agricultural Visa?
We are waiting on the bilateral agreements with a few Southeast Asian countries that the foreign affairs minister is negotiating.
Read more about Agriculture Visa and its requirement published by Australian Government here >