The company Burrangong Meat Processor is facing a critical situation.
As honourable members may know, more than 50 Afghans are employed by Burrangong Meat Processors under meat industry traineeships.
Mission Employment placed those people in Burrangong Meat Processors. Generally, the Afghan job seekers have been overwhelmingly received and proven themselves to be reliable and motivated employees.
Most of the Afghan job seekers are from northern Afghanistan and are members of the Hazari minority. They were all opposed to the Taliban in varying degrees, and will face an unknown future if they return to Afghanistan.
As for who picks our fruit and vegetables...
Extract from the Sydney Morning Herald:
Late last year, pressure began mounting on the Government from within its own ranks beginning with the National Party MP John Forrest whose Victorian electorate of Mallee has thousands of temporary refugees employed in local industries.
A number of other backbenchers have followed, protection visa holders are employed in jobs where workers are scarce, such as fruit pickers or meat workers, and where they have assimilated into the community.
