You may have opened Pandora's box with this one . I know locally that the farmers are importing asian workers to harvest vegetables etc . They haven't been able to get local labor for years and the backpacker supply isn't regular enough .
I know in rural areas they struggle with getting skilled people . E.g. small engineering firms fail to even get applicants . This has been a story on Landline a few times over the years .
I did hear anecdotally that they were importing Irish and English tradies in the Territory as they said that there were a shortage of Australian tradesmen because we haven't been training enough recently . This has been contributed to by the poor employment situation in Ireland .
Be nice to know from someone up there how true that is .
