THERE are a number of local young adults who do work in the orchards at the end of the year, after school finishes. They vary greatly in skills and most want to work in the shaded packing sheds.
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The problem is we can't get Australian adults to pick fruit as it is considered as too hard to pick fruit in the sun.
The number of Australian fruit pickers who follow the harvest trail has dwindled in the past decade and backpackers are the only ones left. The local industry is also working with some Pacific Island workers as well.
I hear people say, let’s make people pick fruit for the unemployment benefit. Great in theory but if we force people to work they will do more damage to the trees and the orchard and we won't have an industry.
Is that what we want? I don't think so.
If we want a local orchard industry, then we need to encourage backpackers to come to the region. Most backpackers are keen to work and work hard to save money so they can then go to the coast and have a good time.
It's sad to say many unemployed Australians just don't want to do this type of work.
If we don't get backpackers, because of an excessive tax rates, we will have a lot of fruit rotting on the trees which will be a disaster for our horticultural industries and as an income source for the local community.
If we get the tax right and open more markets, which industry is also working on as I write, then the local cherry industry may well double or triple in size over the next decade.
That is what we need when so many industries are closing down in the local economy.
Bruce Reynolds
Orange Branch Chair, NSW Farmers Association
BYELECTION SAGA CONTINUES
I’M sure many people in the electorate of Orange will be glad to see a politician of any stripe finally appointed after several months of having no local member to help us in our battles with bureaucracy.
Now, Mr. Donato, there’s the small matter of my ongoing saga with Telstra.
Joan Brown
PARTIES PAYING THE PRICE
THE Coalition and Labor (in particular) would do well to consider that running NSW by way of a non-consultative dictate is alienating the very voters who have the capacity to turf any party out of office.
So how about it, boys and girls. Pay a bit more attention to the John and Jane Does of the state, particularly in regional areas, and less on your vested interests in the top end of town and the unions entrenched for the main part in Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong.Weep, Mike Baird. You and Troy Grant have brought it all on yourselves.
Philip Clark
THROW YOUR CASH OUR WAY
IT appears Mike Baird has billions to spend on a bayside rail line in Sydney. I say, transfer this proposed expenditure to a tunnel under the Blue Mountains to the Central West. Politicians need to stop flying into and out of rural electorates and travel by road to gain a much better understanding of the true situation confronting people living in regional and rural areas.
The message is quite clear, not only in the US, but worldwide. Ignoring the disquiet will be fatal to any political party.