Tourist Visa to Temporary Work Visas
Tue, 18 Apr 2006 05:28:00 GMT
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock announced in March that Australia would
not make it easier for nonimmigrant tourists to obtain temporary work visas.
After raids on farms turned up illegal workers during the summer and fall
harvests, farmers requested a streamlined process under which tourists could do
farm and other seasonal work: "Tomato crops were left rotting on the ground.
Winegrapes are being left on the vine, well past their quality use-by date...
Immigration policy is not addressing the unskilled labor shortages in regional
Australia."