Australia’s main opposition party has accused the federal government of ‘bungling’ a plan to give Pacific Islanders special visas to work in Australia, ABC News reported.
The government’s guest worker scheme – designed to help the horticulture industry overcome labour shortages – allows 2,500 people from Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga and Papua New Guinea to pick and pack fruit in Australia for seven months a year.
But opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone said there is no sign of the workers, according to ABC.
'We're now halfway through the season, there's not a sign of a single worker in place and there's huge embarrassment in the Pacific for us,” she is quoted as saying.
'`There has been` an absolute failure of administration. The growers have been left in the lurch.”
She said the government has either neglected the scheme or changed its mind.
'Whatever it is, it is bad for us, it's bad for the horticultural areas who were looking forward to and expecting to rely on that labour this year, and it's certainly very bad for those Pacific Island countries,' she added.
In a statement, Employment Minister Julia Gillard said the scheme is in its final stages of implementation and will be driven by demand from the industry, reports ABC.
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