An idea that’s gaining traction, in a pandemic where international travel has stopped and many Australians are losing their jobs, is this notion that the unemployed (aka: everyone on JobSeeker payments) should go out into the regions and help the farmers pick fruit.
It’s been reported that unemployed people are refusing work, including fruit picking. Tales of woe have been circulated about fruit literally ‘rotting on the ground’ and farmers destroying entire crops because no one will come to pick them. This is done in conjunction with stories of abuse and exploitation amongst backpacker seasonal workers being framed as ‘a stigma’, that these abusive farmers are little more than a few bad apples (if you’ll pardon the pun).
In addition to these attacks on the unemployed for being a lazy, farmer-hating section of the population, misconceptions and misinformation about the reality of the jobs sector and the lifestyle of the JobSeeker payment have spread wildly.
For every job vacancy, there are 13 people seeking a job. And the likelihood of making it to the interview stage for an entry-level role is probably not in your favour, especially if you have gaps in your resume or no previous experience as a bartender or a shelf stacker. Employers have reported being inundated with applications, even more than before COVID-19. Hundreds or even thousands of people might be going for the exact same role as you, and it’s estimated that this will continue for years. And while naysayers may insist that there are ‘plenty of jobs out there if you’re not afraid of hard work,’ it’s estimated that 400,000 more Australians will be unemployed by Christmas this year.
Even with statistics pointing to the lack of available jobs and evidence that supports a permanent rise to the JobSeeker rate, the current consensus in the Morrison government is that cutting JobSeeker will motivate people to get a job. According to the Prime Minister himself: ‘we can’t allow the JobSeeker payment to become an impediment to people going out and doing work, getting extra shifts.’
As entire industries have closed down or downsized, people have been applying for anything and everything. But not fruit picking, it seems, much to the chagrin of various ministers and leaders in the Morrison Government. Deputy PM Michael McCormack has tried to romanticise farming, having recently framed fruit-picking as something worthy of posting on social media, as though young Australians are selfie-obsessed, vacuous and lazy. ‘It would be a great Instagram moment for them to get up the tree, pick some fruit.’ According to McCormack, farming is also where ‘you’ll find more friends. You might find the love of your life.’
'It seems a bit strange to frame being exploited and barely able to afford accommodation as the solution to… being exploited and barely able to afford accommodation.'
Fruit picking may seem like a fun trip to the strawberry farm, filling a basket leisurely, sneaking bites from fresh berries and basking in the sun with your newfound future husband. But former fruit picker and Guardian columnist Steve Jones has pointed out that fruit picking is no easy feat.
‘You have to work quickly, carrying heavy bags of apples, or bent over picking strawberries... Every person has a quota, and in many places you’re only paid by how much work you get done. There’s a minimum wage, true, but if you don’t hit the targets repeatedly you’re likely to lose your job, and to meet those targets you have to work at full speed, all day… there’s also a lot to think about while you’re harvesting fruit, it’s not as simple as walking along and collecting everything in your path. When picking apples, you need to consider the size, the colour, whether they’re damaged, how firm they are… pick poor-quality fruit, and it won’t count towards your pay.’
The level of work and commitment required to pick fruit does not accommodate those who have rental leases, children and/or other dependents, or those who are disabled, aged, chronically ill, injured or living with mental health issues. Nor does the work accommodate those who don’t have their own transport. Even the National Farmers Federation concedes that the work and conditions required for harvesting fruit may be unsuitable for people ‘tied down by housing, family and social connections.’
This discussion about sending the unemployed of Australia out into the regions for apple picking is nothing particularly innovative. This same Marie Antoinette-esque ‘let them pick fruit’ conversation has happened in Britain, where Brexit negotiations in 2017 saw a decline in seasonal workers arriving from Eastern Europe, and it was posited that perhaps the unemployed should pick up the slack. In 2016, former Senator Nick Xenophon proposed that those who were receiving unemployment benefits should replace a reduced number of fruit-picking backpackers who weren’t coming to Australia (due to a ‘backpacker tax’). And in 2018, after the backpacker tax had made a few backpackers hesitant to work, Scott Morrison spoke of the subsequent labour shortage being filled with the unemployed: ‘this also ensures job seekers on taxpayer support have no excuse to refuse opportunities.’
But what if these ‘opportunities’ weren’t exactly what they said on the tin?
In 2016, while working under the Federal Government’s Seasonal Worker Programme, workers from the Pacific Islands who came to Australia to pick fruit found themselves left with as little as $9/week after deductions (accommodation and food). Backpackers working in Australian farms have also complained about being exploited in ‘slave-like conditions’ for as little as $4/hour so that their visas can be extended.
These instances should have prompted reforms in how we treat migrant workers, and how every job should be required to pay workers an appropriate, liveable wage. But we have learned nothing. We have not learned from stories about backpackers who have lived in repugnant accommodation, had conditions of their visa taken advantage of, who have been sexually assaulted or injured, who have been held captive and repeatedly abused. And places like these are where the government wants to send the unemployed. It seems a bit strange to frame being exploited and barely able to afford accommodation as the solution to… being exploited and barely able to afford accommodation.
When dwelling on the widespread lack of enthusiasm about a prospective fruit-picking job, consider that it’s not so much that people are afraid of a bit of hard work and have it too easy on the dole, but more so that people don’t want to do backbreaking and exploitative work for an income that’s little more than small potatoes.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, nor will it have a clean-cut economic resolution by the end of 2020. The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the current recession necessitate liveable JobSeeker rates and assurance for those on JobKeeper. It requires a world where underemployment is reduced, where jobs that pay below minimum wage are rightly paraded as inhumane. It requires intense structural change in how seasonal and casual workers are paid and supported.
It does not require unemployed and underemployed Australians (from the university student to the single mother) getting into the fields while politicians receive pay rises and the wealthy receive tax cuts.
Vivienne Coburn is an eclectic writer and ardent coffee snob from Brisbane. Her work has been featured in Junkee, Ibis House, PASTEL Magazine and on her mum's fridge. She is also the host of 'Spookzzz' on 4ZZZ (102.1 FM). You can follow her on Twitter @pearandivy