During the summer months, about 8000 seasonal workers from Oceanic counties like Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa begin casual employment at a range of regional Tasmanian fruit farms.

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The longstanding international agreement stems from the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, which was created by the federal government's Department of Education, Skills, and Employment over a decade ago.

That particular initiative was aimed at giving workers a better opportunity to provide for their families back home, while simultaneously offering employers access to reliable, productive workers, in turn, reducing labour gaps in rural Australian towns.

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However, Tasmania's housing crisis - exacerbated by the lingering effects of COVID-19 - meant the amount of available and affordable accommodation for these workers to inhabit was lagging compared to the ever-increasing yields of farms across the state - which required far more fruit pickers.

According to the owners of several Tasmanian apple and pear farms, this staffing shortfall meant their business was unable to harvest up to half their crops last year.

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Solutions to this issue have been raised by several property developers across the state's North since 2020, including many who attempted to convert residential-zoned properties into shared facilities designed to house up to 20 seasonal workers.

However, in most cases, the community do not take kindly to such applications, and resident representations citing, noise, traffic, and a potential decline in the value of neighbouring properties are often heard by council.

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A similar scenario is now unfolding in the Meander Valley municipality, after an application - seeking planning permission for a secondary residence to be constructed to the rear of an existing dwelling - received significant backlash in the form of five written representations, included in the agenda for the council's next ordinary meeting on Tuesday.

Residents claimed the Deloraine property was being used to house seasonal workers and speculated the owner was planning on using the additional building to accommodate more tenants.

Each representor raised almost identical concerns, in that the vehicles belonging to the estimated eight guests that stay there during the season already cause road congestion - allegedly reported to council on several occasions - which residents believe would be magnified by the addition of more tenants - and their vehicles - with no provision for extra on-site car parking

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