February 2, 2016
The Queensland Farmers’ Federation has launched a national campaign to encourage the Federal Government not to go ahead with a proposed “backpacker tax” that it says will hurt regional communities.
The campaign consists of an online petition and a #backpackertax hashtag social media campaign aimed at harnessing community support for a softening of changes to the way backpackers will be taxed.
The Federal Government announced in the 2015 Budget that from July 2016 all working holiday makers were to be taxed as non-residents at a rate of 32.5 per cent on all income.
QFF president Stuart Armitage said the new rate would affect industries and communities that relied on backpacker labour to satisfy demand during peak harvesting periods.
“Queensland agriculture industries such as cotton and horticulture are already feeling the effects of this reduction in international workers with the current trend of 12 per cent fewer backpacker arrivals to Australia each year,” he said.
“Without labour to get the crop in and out of the ground farmers will be under serious threat of losing their businesses.”
NFF Workforce Productivity Committee chairman Charlie Armstrong said backpackers contributed about $3.5 billion every year to the Australian economy.
About 40,000 backpackers were employed on Australian farms.
“Taxing backpackers at a rate of 32.5 per cent will make work in Australian agriculture a highly unprofitable proposition,” he said.
“Already we are seeing signs that the proposed tax rate of 32.5 per cent is scaring working holiday makers away from Australia. In nations like Canada and New Zealand, they are just as likely to be able to find farm work that attracts substantially lower amounts of taxation.
“The Federal Government is showing poor judgment by proposing changes that will undermine the future of cotton, fruit and vegetable industries in Queensland.
“We cannot allow the current lose-lose-lose situation where the backpackers stop coming, the growers and farmers are affected and the local rural economies are put in unnecessary jeopardy.
“We urge farmers and other industry stakeholders as well as the broader Queensland public to join us in demonstrating the importance of backpackers to agriculture, tourism and the regions by signing our online petition.”
- External link: Backpacker Tax Petition
