DEFENCE VETERANS ANSWER THE CALL AGAIN AS HARVEST WORKFORCE PRESSURE BUILDS

Grain Producers Australia (GPA) and Operation Grain Harvest Assist (OGHA) are again placing former Australian Defence Force members into grain harvest jobs - and building a permanent pipeline of skilled Australian workers for agriculture.

The partnership connects former members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with grain producers, offering an Australian answer to the workforce shortages confronting growers as the 2026 harvest begins. 

With headers rolling in northern cropping regions within weeks, and with the supply of overseas workers again uncertain, GPA believes the veteran community is the most immediately available pool of skilled labour in the country that is trained, disciplined, accustomed to machinery, long hours and remote conditions, and already here.

“When GPA launched the initiative in 2021, an estimated 300 veterans answered the call to assist grain producers throughout Australia,” GPA Chair Matthew Madden said. 

“They were welcomed onto farms because they brought what a harvest crew actually needs - mechanical aptitude, situational awareness, an understanding of safety, and a willingness to work.

Grain Producers Australia (GPA) and Operation Grain Harvest Assist (OGHA) are again placing former Australian Defence Force members into grain harvest jobs - and building a permanent pipeline of skilled Australian workers for agriculture.

The partnership connects former members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with grain producers, offering an Australian answer to the workforce shortages confronting growers as the 2026 harvest begins. 

With headers rolling in northern cropping regions within weeks, and with the supply of overseas workers again uncertain, GPA believes the veteran community is the most immediately available pool of skilled labour in the country that is trained, disciplined, accustomed to machinery, long hours and remote conditions, and already here. 

“When GPA launched the initiative in 2021, an estimated 300 veterans answered the call to assist grain producers throughout Australia,” GPA Chair Matthew Madden said. 

“They were welcomed onto farms because they brought what a harvest crew actually needs - mechanical aptitude, situational awareness, an understanding of safety, and a willingness to work. 

"Many have come back season after season.

“Most of the national conversation about agricultural labour is a conversation about visas.

"This one is a conversation about Australians. 

“Where we can solve a workforce problem at home, we should, and in the veteran community there are thousands of people with precisely the skills our members are looking for.” 

Importantly, OGHA is not only a harvest fix, it is also a route into permanent agricultural careers. 

“Several thousand ADF members retire from the Defence Force each year, after an average eight-year service,” OGHA founder (r) Lieutenant Colonel Garry Spencer AM said. 

“These are trained, skilled and disciplined potential staff in their prime, looking for new purpose. 

"Agriculture can offer them that purpose, and in return it gains the workforce it has been searching for. 

“We have several hundred experienced veterans ready to go for this harvest, and attention of this kind reaches people who have never considered agriculture as an option.

"Every story told brings more of them forward.”

Mr Madden said the initiative was ready to be scaled, and that governments looking for durable answers on agricultural workforce should look closely at it. 

“This is a workforce solution that does not depend on a visa class,” Mr Madden said. 

“The wages stay onshore, the workers are Australian, and growers pay them. 

“It answers the concern that agriculture is drifting toward a guest-worker model, and it does so without asking the taxpayer to carry the cost of the work itself. 

“It also offers a purposeful transition from service into civilian life for veterans, which is worth a great deal, and agriculture is well placed to provide. 

“What governments can usefully do is help us find and prepare people faster. 

A modest investment in recruitment, screening and machinery induction would multiply what OGHA is able to put into the paddock this season and every season after it. 

“GPA would welcome that conversation, and we are ready to have it now," Mr Madden said.Grain producers seeking harvest workers, and veterans seeking work, can register through OGHA via GPA at www.grainproducers.com.au/farm-labour

ENDS

Further information: 

GPA Chair Matthew Madden: 0457 731 210 

Lt Col Garry Spencer AM (Ret.), Operation Grain Harvest Assist: 0418 996 856

GPA Executive Officer Rachael Oxborrow: 0416 705 193