We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Working holiday makers in Australia: food security, climate change, and the backpacker tax.
- Authors
Iaquinto, Benjamin Lucca
- Abstract
Abstract: This commentary considers an often overlooked contribution to food security in Australia—the labour of working holiday makers. Their ability to act as a flexible and mobile temporary workforce is essential to the maintenance of the Australian agricultural industry. Previously, no tax was payable on income below $18,200, but a 2015 proposal to increase their tax rate sparked a vigorous political debate and so revealed their importance to the agricultural industry. A decline in backpacker numbers would cause agriculture to shrink to cope with smaller workforces. But the effects of climate change are expected to further shrink agricultural areas as extreme events and hotter temperatures impact crops, livestock, and the productivity of agricultural workers. Issues that appear manageable when viewed in isolation, such as increases in the tax rate on working holiday makers, become more problematic when viewed in conjunction with other impacts affecting agriculture. Thus, the ‘backpacker tax’ risks making food security harder to maintain at a time when Australia's agricultural system is already vulnerable to climate change.
- Subjects
AUSTRALIA; FOOD security; CLIMATE change; BACKPACKERS; LABOR supply; AGRICULTURAL industries
- Publication
Geographical Research, 2018, Vol 56, Issue 1, p107
- ISSN
1745-5863
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1745-5871.12261