The small number of industrial training institutes and craft training centres that already exist need to be upgraded, and the whole issue of skill-based training of informal workers needs to be re-evaluated.
A flagship agriculture scheme established to address Queensland s critical farm worker shortage has signed up just 85 people - with all but a few of those quitting before the eight-week program ended. The failure of the State Government s Back to Work in Agriculture Scheme - which provides up to $1500 for workers to temporarily relocate and pick crops in regional Queensland - comes as bombshell new data reveals $31 million in crops had been lost across the state due to the seasonal worker shortage. The state s $130 million strawberry industry has been hardest hit, with one-tenth of all crops thrown away. Queensland s staggering losses make up 72 per cent of Australia s $42.8 million in lost produce, according to Growcom s National Lost Crop Register.