Australian Agricultural Company (AAco), the country’s largest beef producer, is eyeing the Indian labour market to fill up 260 positions at its AUD 80-million abattoir located in Darwin.

According to business daily Australian Financial Review report, AAco Chief Executive, Mr David Farley, said the company had been working on a plan for 18 months, which includes importing workers on 457 and 417 visas from India.

“If we go into this project with the fear of unions and industrial problems then I shouldn’t be starting this project,” Mr Farley told the daily recently.

“We want to run a safe, fair and equitable plant that offers long-term employment opportunities for people and, therefore, we need a productive workforce and if we go into this project with that philosophy we will be there for a long time.

“The company has confirmed it acquired a 600-hectare property for AUD 13.27 million and would release a market tender to build the facility within 60 days.

Mr Farley said India would be the main country where it would seek skilled meat-manufacturing labour.

“India will be key, but of course we have a relationship with IFFCO which kills about 3.5 million buffalo a year — so we have a bit of access to the skills there,” he said.

IFFCO is a major Malaysian shareholder in AAco.

Mr Farley said he wanted to have a “good domestic content” but “we will also be looking to bring in people from offshore“.

He said the company was putting together several applications to the government for the visas.

A spokesman for the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Mr Chris Bowen, said the applications would be assessed in the usual manner.

“Each application will be assessed on its merits by a case-by-case basis against the 457 criteria,” he said.

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