Professor Gerry Boyle:

Very little. It was disappointing. We had looked at overseas as well. On foot of our work on that committee, we got a change in the migrant worker permits but, again, the take-up has been very poor to date. It is a slow burner. Our research suggests that once a farmer has approximately 120 cows, there will be a labour situation in most cases. Even at 120 cows, factoring in reasonable allowance for days off and so on, the farmer will need some casual labour support. That is the difficulty. There is a great opportunity. We have done all the sums and there would probably be a couple of thousand jobs in it over the next four or five years. There is also the issue of salary, however. We will have 20 or 25 new managers graduating on Friday. They will expect to get significantly above the minimum wage. Not every farm can afford those kinds of wages. I do not have an answer for the Senator.