NSW Makes Plea to Qld Over Agricultural Workers

The NSW government has accused Queensland of playing politics over its refusal to allow agricultural workers to move freely between the two states.

Queensland on Sept 4 agreed at national cabinet to aim to reopen its borders by Christmas.

However, together with Tasmania and Western Australia, the state declined to endorse a national agriculture code which would deem agricultural work an essential service.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the code was crucial for Australias agricultural sector after years of drought were succeeded by a bumper harvest this year.

She again implored Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to revise her hardline position on borders, saying Australias eastern states are “inextricably linked” and needed to cooperate.

“Were Australians as well as people who live in NSW,” Berejiklian said on Friday.

NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall was less diplomatic in his criticism of the states that declined to sign up.

“What we have seen today is an abject failure of leadership from those first ministers,” he said in a statement on Friday.

“Politics has been allowed to trump common sense and our nations agricultural industry has been grossly let down as a result.”

NSW will forge ahead with the code anyway, working with Victoria, South Australia and the Commonwealth to allow agricultural workers to move freely between the southeastern states.

The spat between Berejiklian and her northern counterpart ovRead More – Source