National Agriculture Workforce Strategy
In December 2019, the Government established the independent National Agricultural Labour Advisory Committee.
The committee consulted with over 300 organisations. It considered 117 submissions. Following this, the committee developed the National Agricultural Workforce Strategy: learning to excel.
The Strategy confirms that Australian agriculture is a complex and sophisticated system. Its performance relies heavily on the quality of its people.
Recommendations
The Strategy included 37 recommendations. These highlight the need to:
- modernise agriculture’s image
- attract and keep workers
- embrace innovation
- build skills for modern agriculture
- treat workers ethically.
The committee emphasised how important it is to get quality data. It also recognised the important role overseas workers have in filling workforce gaps.
Australian Government Roadmap
We released the Australian Government Roadmap to attract, retain, upskill and modernise the agriculture workforce in March 2021. The Strategy was released at the same time.
The Roadmap outlines our vision for the sector. It provides a framework to guide consideration of the Strategy findings and recommendations.
Our investment of approximately $30 million in the agricultural workforce through the 2021-22 Budget responds to recommendations in the Strategy.
Download
| Document | Pages | File size |
|---|---|---|
National Agricultural Workforce Strategy PDF  |
327 | 5.1 MB |
National Agricultural Workforce Strategy DOCX  |
327 | 8.4 MB |
| Australian Government Roadmap PDF |
14 | 5.5 MB |
| Australian Government Roadmap DOCX |
14 | 466 KB |
If you have difficulty accessing these files, please visit web accessibility.
Committee members
- Mr John Azarias (Chair) – Public policy specialist, NSW
- Professor Ruth Nettle (Deputy Chair) – Leader of Rural Innovation Research Group, University of Melbourne, VIC
- Mr John Williams (Deputy Chair) – Former NSW Senator, NSW
- Mr Will Barton – CEO of Gundagai Meat Processors, NSW
- Industry Professor Hermione Parsons – Director of the Institute for Supply Chain and Logistics, Deakin University, VIC
- Mr Geoff Richards – Managing Director of Richgro Garden products and former Chair of Agrifood Skills Australia, WA
- Dr Angeline Achariya – Executive Director of Innovation and Growth at Simplot Australia, VIC
- Ms Julie Aldous – Rural educator, VIC
- Associate Professor Jacki Schirmer – Health Research Institute and the Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, ACT
- Mr Robert Hinrichsen – Owner/Director of Kalfresh, QLD
- Mr Clayton Nelson – Senior Executive at Austral Fisheries, WA