Swan Hill fruit farmer Gaye Tripodi stares across the table with one thought on her mind.
She knows her family-run business will be in trouble if the Federal Government refuses to allow Pacific Islander guest workers into the country.
"We've been struggling for years to get the people we need and it's only going to get worse," she says in the packaging shed of her Murrawee Farms property.
"We're not after cheap labour.
"What we want is an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
"This argument … that farmers just want cheap labour makes me very, very angry."
Mrs Tripodi is referring to claims by some unionists that a National Farmers' Federation proposal to allow up to 25,000 Pacific Islanders into Australia as guest workers is just a way of exploiting manual labourers.
The Federal Government is considering the proposal as a way of filling an increasing shortfall of pickers and packers in the $7 billion-a-year horticultural industry.
More than 2000 workers are needed in Victoria alone, where lost production is costing some businesses up to $250,000 a year.
The NFF has recommended that pilot programs - similar to a scheme introduced in New Zealand last year - be held in Victoria (Swan Hill, Mildura and Robinvale), Queensland (Emerald) and NSW (Griffith).
The programs would involve between 500 and 1000 Pacific Islanders from countries such as Vanuatu, Tonga and Samoa working six days a week over the harvest season from October to April.
The Australian Workers Union has backed the plan provided no Australian workers lose their jobs, and seasonal workers are paid full local rates.
The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union is not so keen, saying it wants wages and conditions of low-income Australians addressed before the nation recruits Pacific Islanders.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to make an announcement about the pilot program at the Pacific Islands leaders forum in Niue, which begins tomorrow.
Federal Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the Government had examined NZ's Recognised Seasonal Employer program to see if a similar scheme would be appropriate for Australia.
"Any such program would not be a cheap labour scheme," he said.
"We also have to ensure that the wages and conditions of Australian workers are not undermined."
NFF workplace relations manager Denita Wawn said the shortfall existed because "there is less interest in working in seasonal casual jobs because it's not full-time, you have to travel and the last thing many people want to do is manual labour".
She said backpackers and travelling retirees usually moved on after a few weeks, and as it took a week to train workers, this was not ideal for farmers.
Ms Wawn said the islanders would be paid between $800 and $1000 gross a week and safeguards would be in place to try to prevent any exploitation.
The expense of bringing the islanders to Australia will cost farmers an estimated $1.46 an hour more than they now pay other workers.
But like Mrs Tripodi, many would be happy to pay up. She says she needs at least 40 Islanders to work on her 200-hectare farm, which has 90,000 trees producing more than 4 million kilograms of fruit a year, and that the Swan Hill region alone will need more than 8000 guest workers within four years.
The Tripodis grow stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, plums), grapes, melons and pistachio nuts, and have an annual turnover of $3 million to $5 million.
"The labour shortage is costing the growers money and we're getting frustrated because we're paying exorbitant money for water as well as huge amounts … for wages because our industry is completely labour dependent," she says.
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