Young Australians could be given jobseeker payments as incentive to pick fruit

Growing list of MPs want refugees to be offered permanent residency if they pick fruit on short-staffed farms

Young Australians could be incentivised with jobseeker payments to pick fruit as short-staffed farms desperately seek to make up for absent backpackers due to Covid-19 border restrictions.

A parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday recommended the government urgently" set up a program targeted at year 12 and university students, encouraging them to have a gap year at home" by moving to regional Australia to pick fruit.