Australia’s new ASEAN farm worker visa hits snags

Australian farm work is the only overseas work Malaysians have been stopped from engaging. Malaysians are free to work in primary industries in neighbouring Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.

There has been a backlash against Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) Minister of human resources Saravanan Murugan on social media, with some claiming they have been robbed of a lifetime opportunity because of an irrational decision on the Australian visa.

Malaysia is not the only country putting impediments in the way of local workers coming to Australia on the farm work visa. The ministry of labour and vocational training in Cambodia has indicated that it would want to control worker outflow to Australia. The insertion in Australian legislation of the phrase “participating country” rather than citizens of ASEAN countries has allowed ASEAN bureaucracies to add an additional tier of red tape to farm workers coming to Australia to work. This has been shown not to always be in the farm workers interests. A network of unscrupulous middle-people are springing up in ASEAN countries to exploit potential visa applicants.

In effect, ASEAN bureaucracies have put a dent in what could have been a win-win situation for Australian farmers and ASEAN farm workers, many suffering from under-employment due to the pandemic.