Dear Members,
Over the past few weeks the QBA have received a number of enquiries from members relating to the challenges associated in securing staff within their business.
The QBA acknowledges the Queensland commercial beekeeping sector has not been immune to the workforce shortages impacting all industries within Australia, and traditional means to secure local staff to work in a beekeeping operation have proved particularly challenging for some time now.
As a result of increasing enquiries relating to workforce shortages the QBA have been in contact with DAF to discuss this matter more broadly and explore the options available to our sector.
Late last week the QBA received an offer from DAF to run a short webinar introducing different workforce labour programs currently on offer to support the Queensland agricultural sector.
The webinar will take place online, Tuesday 14 February at 8:30am and will run for approximately 1 hour.
Representatives from DAF and the Federal Department of Agriculture will provide an introduction to the PALM (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) Scheme, provide additional sources of information and have kindly made themselves available for a Q&A session that will occur at the end of the meeting.
The PALM Scheme
The PALM scheme ultimately delivers outcomes for the Australian Agricultural sector and Pacific Island nations who have agreed to the scheme. The scheme was primarily developed to fill vacancies in the Australian Agricultural and Meat processing workforce and has evolved through the COVID-19 pandemic to assist in sourcing workers from 9 Pacific Island and Timor-Leste to allow eligible Australian businesses to source workforce during the current lack in availability of local workers.
The scheme provides a pathway to recruit both skilled and unskilled labour to fill employee vacancies for short term seasonal jobs or for longer term roles for between one and 4 years in unskilled, low-skilled and semi-skilled positions. In return, the scheme allows workers to build skillset and financial capacity (whilst in Australia) and eventually return to their country of origin to start new businesses. The PALM scheme delivers investment in the local economy of the Pacific Island nations who've committed to the scheme.
In collaboration with DAF and the Federal Department of Agriculture, the QBA is pleased to present this unique, industry specific opportunity to any members who wish to participate in the webinar.
If you would like to register your interest to attend the webinar, please email me (info@qbabees.org.au) and I will add you to the list of attendees for this meeting. Alternatively, join us on the day by clicking the link for the Microsoft teams meeting located at the bottom of this post.
Please note, anyone wishing to participate will need to have access to Microsoft teams. To register to use Microsoft teams please click here.
For more information about the PALM scheme, please click here or click on the link below to visit the DAF E-hub. https://daf.engagementhub.com.au/aglabour
If you're operation has been struggling to source employees, this may be the solution for you.
All the best,
Jo Martin
QBA State Secretary.
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