AUSTRALIAN taxpayer dollars are to be spent on training meatworkers in Vietnam at a time when a lack of labour is crippling our red meat processing sector.
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It’s a move processors and butchers have labelled a slap in the face.
Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, David Littleproud, has launched the Managing Abattoirs, Training and Exchange of Skills (MATES) in-country training program, saying it will improve key integrity aspects of the live export supply chain in Vietnam and help lift food quality and safety.
The MATES program is part of a larger five-year $146 million investment focused on upskilling Vietnam's workforce.
Appropriately skilled labour is the single biggest obstacle to further investment in processing in Australia, according to peak industry group the Australian Meat Industry Council.
“This is an industry that employs nearly 200,000 people directly and indirectly across processing, exporting, wholesaling, retailing and smallgoods manufacture and, in regional areas, is often the biggest employer in town,” said AMIC chief executive officer Patrick Hutchinson.
“To invest Australian taxpayer funds in skilling labour overseas when our own local industry is struggling for those skills is maddening.
“When 8.5 out of every 10 animals sold in Australia are bought by processors, and we have begged and borrowed continually to get this government to recognise the value in investing in the red meat supply at similar levels to what industry does, this beggars belief.
“We have repeatedly run ministers through the key issues affecting our members - the number one headline is we need a permanent workforce - and we are being ignored while money is being channelled to overseas red meat supply chains.”