WINERIES cropping 167,000 tonnes of grapes seeking cellar hands, protected cropping growing at 28 per cent annually but without enough staff to better that and a TAFE system in disrepair unable to qualify locals to keep them in their home regions were just some of the issues aired at The Next Crop, Griffith, last night.
Sue Molyneaux, human resources chief at Casella Wines, said the company had hired 16 full-time cellar hands last week and currently employed 20 apprentices across the spectrum of experience.
The propensity to hire apprentices was because of a lack of qualified staff in Australia, she said.
She also lamented the loss of 457 visas and the ability of Australian agriculture to bring the best to our shores.
“We just wished we had been asked about the impact of (cutting the visa) would have on our business,” she said.
Jon Cobden, of ICI Industries, said the comany had 17 potential revenue streams before it at the moment but was only pursuing three because it just didn’t have the people to continue growing.
“While it’s a good problem to have, it limits our growth potential,” he said.
Most people at the forum agreed it was time regional NSW regions and cities stopped competing with one another for resources, or government-funding for services, and acted together as regional NSW as “the team”.
Debbie Buller, a fourth generation rice farmer from Leeton, said her family began farming rice in the region in 1928 – making rice an obviously sustainable crop in the country.
“But I had my three kids at Leeton Hospital, and while the hospital is still there, giving birth there is not an option for my daughter-in-law,” she said.
“And that is a degradation of services.”
Read more soon at The Next Crop.
