A new agriculture visa promising to bring more employees from Southeast Asian countries to work on Australian farms was ready to be rolled out in October, but more than four months on, not a single country has signed on.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said progress of the visa, announced last June, now rests with Foreign Minister Marise Payne.
"I'm totally frustrated, as are Australian farmers. We put this in place on the 1st of October," he told SBS News.
"All we're waiting on now is Marise Payne to complete the bilaterals [sic]."
The government had said the scheme would be offered to the 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which include Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Myanmar, Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia.
The government is currently in negotiation with four countries.
So far, Indonesia has signed a memorandum of understanding, but the status of the other three countries remains unknown.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) told SBS News that negotiations are underway with a "small number of countries in South-East Asia" and the federal government is aiming to finalise arrangements "as soon as possible".
"Bilateral discussions with Indonesia are well advanced," the department said in a statement.
"Finalisation of bilateral negotiations depends on each country agreeing to arrangements covering their citizens and being assured of the protections the program will deliver."
SBS News has spoken with several embassies, which say they are in ongoing discussions with the Australian government but that there is no timeline for a final decision.
The initial announcement was made in response to , which scrapped the requirement for British backpackers to work on farms for 88 days if they wanted to stay in Australia for two years.
But the program could see just a fraction of the workers needed in the short-term.
“To sign up one country, they'll want to actually have what you'd call a pilot and bring in either 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 [workers] to be able to prove that the program works and the safeguards that we promised them are there," Mr Littleproud said.
It is fuelling tensions within the government between Liberals and Nationals.
SBS News has spoken with one Nationals MP who says the action taken has not been urgent enough, particularly as a federal election draws closer.
The delays will likely cause some regional MPs to apply pressure on senior leadership to find solutions.
‘Be careful what you sign up for’
A key concern among the nations remains citizen welfare, following revelations of poor pay conditions among some Pacific Island workers - with some allegedly receiving as little as $100 a week.
The Australian Workers Union (AWU) has directly approached ASEAN embassies, encouraging them not to sign up to the visa program.
"The message we’ve been saying to them is: 'be careful of what you sign up for'," AWU Secretary Daniel Walton said.
"It's got fewer restrictions, fewer rights in place; and all it's going to do is leave more workers being exploited."
Mr Littleproud said the union is jeopardising the deal.
"I can't believe that a union would actually sabotage but also trash the reputation of Australian farms, but also Australia's reputation," he said.
The government says adequate safeguards are in place.
"We're also lifting the penalties and increasing the regulatory frameworks around approved employers and labour hire companies," Mr Littleproud said.
The DFAT spokesperson said minimum requirements for employers and protections for workers are key to the program's implementation.
"The Morrison government has no tolerance for visa fraud, illegal work, worker exploitation or worker underpayment of any kind," the spokesperson said.
'Forced to leave crops behind'
It is another barrier in an already struggling agriculture sector that has seen farmers throw away their crops due to staff shortages.
Cherry farmer Tom Eastlake said a lack of overseas and local workers, border closures and COVID-19 forced him to abandon stock.
"We were forced to leave behind 40 to 50 per cent, just because we didn't have the staff to pick it," he told SBS News.
Mr Eastlake said the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, where workers largely operate year-round, doesn't suit the seasonal crop settings where there is only work a few months in the year.
Cherry farmer Tom Eastlake said a lack of overseas and local workers, border closures and COVID-19 forced him to abandon stock. Source: Supplied
"There's a lot of eggs in the basket of the Pacific Program, which is great, particularly for some industries that can run year-round with those sorts of employees. That's phenomenal," he said.
"But there's a very large percentage of horticultural crops who just can't do that."
He is hoping a solution can be found soon.
