The grains industry is a regional Australian powerhouse with 22,500 farm businesses growing around 50 million tonnes of grains, oilseeds and pulses each year for domestic and global customers. The industry directly employs over 34,000 workers every season, with thousands more employed across the supply chain, and we look after an estimated 31 million hectares of land. In the 2022-23 growing season, Australian grain growers contributed $33 billion Gross Value of Production (GVP) to the Australian economy.
Key points from GrainGrowers’ submission
Overarching issues GrainGrowers has sought to highlight in this submission relate to i) data concerns and ii) the inclusion of grains relevant roles to the grains industry. GrainGrowers’ recommendations are:
i) Current methods used to determine the CSOL do not properly reflect thelabour demands of our industry. Methods should be updated to better reflect current industry recruitment practises, as discussed below in Section 1 of the submission.
ii) Through an industry survey of 663 growers, GrainGrowers has collectedevidence on a number of roles under consultation that should be included in the final CSOL due to significant unmet demand. These roles, and relevant industry data, are highlighted in Section 2 of the submission.