They said that horticulture plays an important job in supporting employment in regional areas across Australia and is a significant export industry.

This election, the industry groups call on all parties to support the industry in the following areas:

Building a Strong Horticultural Workforce

“The competitiveness of Australian horticulture is contingent on access to labour when we need it, at a price that we can afford. Growers need reliable access to short-term labour during harvest and other busy times throughout the year and skilled workers for day-to-day farm management tasks. There needs to be enhanced flexibility in awards and agreements to accommodate the specific characteristics of horticulture and enable us to be domestically and globally competitive.

“We are calling on all parties to:

• Scrap the proposed 32.5% tax rate for backpackers.
• Undertake a comprehensive review of the labour needs of the horticulture industry encompassing issues such as attraction strategies, skills development, labour hire companies, business and risk management, and succession planning as well as identifying the best mechanisms for utilising overseas workers.
• Adopt a number of recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s Review of the Workplace Relations Framework, in particular the recommendations to end the four-yearly modern award review, a revised modern awards objective that accommodates individual sector needs, new incentives to encourage enterprise bargaining in agriculture and changes to protected industrial action rules.”

Supporting Australia’s Horticulture R&D System

“Ongoing investment in Australian horticulture will be essential for our industry to remain competitive into the future.

“Australia currently maintains a system whereby industry and government both contribute to funding horticulture research through a levy on produce, which is matched dollar-for-dollar by Australian Government funding. A number of studies have found that government and industry-funded R&D in horticulture delivers significant results to industry and the economy, with analysis showing returns on investment of 40%.  

“The undersigned horticulture associations would like to see these investments continue in order to support employment and the ongoing growth of Australia’s $9.1 billion horticulture industry.    

“We call on all parties to: 

• Maintain investment in the matching levy system to support industry R&D, which has led to considerable and valuable results in areas such as managing plant pests and diseases, the introduction of new on-farm practices and technologies and the continued growth of export market development.”

Improving competition and fairness in commercial dealings

Key to enabling horticulture to contribute to the growth of the Australian economy is policy that facilitates the market returns that signal to growers the benefits of investment in on-farm innovation and productivity. The groups claim that presently, this signal is distorted by the actions of both of Australia’s large supermarkets who misuse their market power to pay lower prices to suppliers as well as unfairly forcing additional costs onto their suppliers.

“Australia’s fruit and vegetable growers encourage both parties to commit to the following policies during the 2016 election campaign to create a marketplace that is fair and not distorted.

• Reform the Horticultural Code of Conduct in line with recommendations made by the recent Wein/Napper Review of the Code including mandatory real-time price reporting to increase transparency in grower dealings with retailers and wholesalers.
• Legislate an effects test within the Competition Consumer Act which would provide the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with greater power to act where they see anti-competitive behaviour.
• No reintroduction of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, or any other similar legislative tribunals across other industries to ensure horticulture growers do not face increased transport costs.
• Outlaw direct union-business transactions or side deals with union representatives within the Corporations Act and prohibition of top-down industrial bargaining within Enterprise Bargaining Agreements.”

Horticulture is a valuable industry to the Australian economy, providing $9 billion in gross value per annum and supporting jobs in many outer suburban and regional areas. The groups said that they want to see a clear commitment from parties of all persuasions to the future of the industry, so that it can keep providing the food, economic contribution and jobs Australia will need into the future.