Pacific Islander shearer plan hits a snag

Changes to the deeding guidelines for the PALM scheme which will require workers guaranteed 30 hours of work a week, regardless of if work halts due to weather or other factors, have seen contractors deem plans to bring in Pacific workers and train them up untenable.

National Wool Harvesting and Training Advisory Group chairman Don Macdonald said the changes meant they felt they would be better served shifting the focus away from the PALM scheme.

Instead the industry will target wool-growing countries, with a view to providing a Merino acclimatisation program for shearers who may be more used to shearing other breeds.

"We know New Zealanders are not coming here in the numbers that they used to," Mr Macdonald said.

"Then you've got the UK... there's 30 million sheep in the UK.

"They just had the world shearing titles over there and in their type of sheep we couldn't beat them.

"Other areas that would be of interest to us are places like South Africa, Argentina and Mongolia."

Mr Macdonald said it had been identified that during the peak periods from September to early December and late January to the end of March, an estimated 400 extra shearers and a comparable number of shed hands would be needed.

"We're talking to contacts in the UK... we want to pitch a training school, designed for people who are in the industry who want to come out here because if they're under 30, they're free to come here under the normal visas," he said.

"I think it's been reasonably common a lot of those UK shearers in their off season would go to New Zealand because they like shearing cross-bred sheep, that's what they're used to.

"Our season runs a lot longer, there's a lot more opportunities for them here and I think if we can help them get used to shearing Merino sheep and the money's good, we would be surprised if we couldn't attract them out."

Shearing Contractors Association of Australia executive officer Jason Letchford said the association has recommended pay rates 15 per cent above the award rate of $3.67 a head.

"Currently there's not many workers who aren't earning $4.23 a head... and many of the more remote areas or traditional Merino sheep, they are the ones that went to about $5 a head," he said.

"We've seen rates go a minimum of 15pc above award rates in three years to closer to 25pc in some areas.

"Really most shearers would shear a minimum of 125 sheep a day, so their minimum rate is probably $500 a day or $2500 a week... but our challenge is to make sure they're employed for more than the equivalent of 45 working weeks a year."

Mr Letchford said there needed to be more pathways to allow wool harvesting workers access to year-round work so they didn't leave the industry.

"We need to have these people in full employment, so we have to stop looking at a micro level and look at a macro level in terms of global opportunities," he said.

"We've come a long way.... there's so many workers that didn't exist in 2020 that are now working in the industry.

"We've increased the number of novice and beginner schools, in 2019 we were running less than 10 in NSW and have been running between 40 and 50 in the last two years.

"Most of our shearing schools are oversubscribed in terms of the attraction side of things but we still haven't kept up with the demand that the market wants for skilled workers.

"Our number one priority is obviously domestic workers... we're just trying to get the message home that for all the efforts we're doing in keeping all our workers fully employed, there's still just not enough of them and that's the challenge."