When we started farming, young foreign visitors on a 417 visa were eligible to have their working holiday visa extended if they performed volunteer work on farms in rural and remote areas. Then the government decided that these volunteer backpackers were being exploited and visa extensions are now only granted when the backpacker can find a full time paid job. 

Farmers did not magically find money to pay workers. This resulted in volunteer labor drying up and farmers having no option but to work even longer hours doing it all themselves. For the backpackers, they are unable to find farm work and leave the country sooner or compete with so many others for farm jobs that unscrupulous employers are now exploiting backpackers, who have no other option if they want a visa extension. We still staff our farm with wonderful volunteers, but they only stay a few weeks now, and the burden of training is higher, and the variety of jobs they can be given is reduced. We never know if we will be able to find helpers when our backpackers move on.

When the government made this decision, my farm was already in drought. Now that half the country is in drought, reversing this decision would allow farmers to access a willing workforce to help with the extra burden of farming in a drought, such as feeding and caring for hungry livestock.