November 8, 2022
South Burnett Regional Council will back efforts by a local MP to get the Bunya Mountains reclassified under the Working Holiday Maker program.
At Wednesday’s Liveability standing committee meeting, Councillors were told the Bunya Mountains Tavern was having difficulties recruiting enough staff.
They heard the business received calls from backpackers “all the time” who were interested in working at the Bunya Mountains.
Under the Federal Government’s WHM program, eight weeks spent working at a remote or very remote location can add significant bonus time to a backpacker’s visa.
However, because the Bunya Mountains postcode is classified as an “Outer Regional” area, backpackers don’t qualify for this and quickly withdraw their job applications when they find out the Bunya Mountains is an ineligible destination.
The Bunya Mountains is about 50km from both Dalby and Kingaroy, making it difficult to retain a skilled local workforce.
Councillors were told the Tavern’s owners also expect that demands on its business will increase when mountain bike tracks being built by the Western Downs Regional Council open soon.
The owners have asked Member for Maranoa David Littleproud to press to get the Bunya Mountains reclassified as a “Remote” location for the purposes of the WHM program, or get “Outer Regional” areas included in the bonus visa time scheme.
The meeting was told Mr Littleproud has been working on the issue since 2020 and had been told the possibility of expanding the program to Outer Regional areas had been ruled out by the previous government because doing this would have a negative effect on recruitment in Remote and Very Remote areas.
However, he believed the new Federal Government was willing to consider including the Bunya Mountains in the WHM Program’s specified work areas providing a sufficiently strong business case could be made for doing so.
Mr Littleproud said a letter of support from the Council would help advance the Tavern’s case.
Councillors agreed to his request unanimously.
