The Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) welcomes the Albanese Government’s decision to expand the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme to metropolitan processors.
AMIC believes that extending this scheme will be of great benefit to meat and smallgoods producers in metropolitan areas.
“AMIC welcomes the announcement by the government to extend the PALM scheme to metro areas.
“The processing and smallgoods businesses in metro Australia have been in desperate need of more people and this expansion will go a long way towards increasing their productivity and output.” said AMIC CEO, Patrick Hutchinson.
Mr Hutchinson attributes these positive steps for the meat industry to AMIC’s advocacy efforts, the forming of the Agricultural Workforce Working Group of which AMIC is a member and the willingness of Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Murray Watt to address this issue.
“On behalf of AMIC, I have spoken with Minister Watt on this issue and written to several other ministers and advocated for schemes like this to be extended to the whole of the meat processing and smallgoods sector during our Agricultural Workforce Working Group meetings.
“The work that the Agricultural Workforce Working Group and Minister Watt’s office has done is already seeing results and the extension of the PALM scheme is hopefully only the beginning of what we can do to address the workforce issues in our industry.
“Whilst AMIC supports this expansion as a positive step forwardwe must ensure that our regional and rural processors are not disadvantaged by this decision, and that all sectors of our supply chain are supported.
“Our industry must not be disadvantaged in any way, especially as production is expected to increase significantly as herd numbers are forecast to grow over the short to mid-term.” said Mr Hutchinson.
ENDS
About
The Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), is the sole Peak Industry body representing the post-farm gate meat industry, including processors, smallgoods manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors through to independent retail butchers and exporters.
Media contact
Keith Drain – Communications Manager
M: 0429 040 128
