The basic Minimum wage [1] is a wage which doesn't need to be subsidised. Only when as I described eliminating dirt poor / poverty line pay rates from a region that had relied on it, would any govt perhaps need to offer a subsidy to employers to swallow the bitter pill of paying the fair rate to all workers. In Australia employers are not entitled to any payment or entitlement from govt or other entities to continue to employ a long term employee earning an existing wage in their employment. Some big companies in the past have had a bit of a whine and gone for a grab for getting some sort of a handout but -- after the last major abuse where the govt helped a couple poor companies out and got burnt when the sods moved overseas or restructured effectively ending the jobs at risk that were the bargaining chip in the first instance ...

I enjoy meeting the few backpackers that visit my region and I've no issue with them working, but for a very long time I've informed any that I crossed paths with, that they are entitled to the same pay rate as anyone else here, ie don't get scammed -- iirc, all of them had been getting scammed one way or another.

I dislike (very understated) the majority of labour hire companies that were around, that arrange the on farm work as they have in the past, actively discriminated against regular aussies looking for a job - since the aussie is more often likely to know what is right and wrong, what is not acceptable and thus the labour hirer's long running scam would soon come under threat - took time but now govt here is looking at any bad contractors, but we still hear noise pieces chirping that aussies are lazy ... and ...

I am surprised in regard to no US visa that addresses backpakers -- I'd thought in the free western world that the small fraction of tourists that wanted to backpack their way across the country, could do so if they wanted that option and meet the relevant criteria. As I understand, there are generally rules such as the prospective backpacker is not actually flat broke.

Trying to find a near to close no mechanical removal of weeds from a crop, that is cheap and sustainable is somewhat the holy grail of farming. Seems like simple might win out at the end though small robotic platforms that traverse the field ... existing models thus far I've seen are solar powered / electric, which detect, identify and then mechanically upset / remove the weed as it slowly travels its target paddock.

As for a massive project aimed at greening the Great Australian Desert [2] I'd not heard about it but I do not mean to imply it's not happening, Australia is actually a pretty big place. However the cover photo in the link suggests not desert proper but very marginal flat once cleared and felled, that after initial cropping flogged the soils, all it could be is poor farming country that is best rehabilitated and re-vegetated with trees and shrubs.

There was actually a lot of conservation / rehabilitation work carried out in 1920's once it became very clear that the farming practices of the time did not suit the geology and climate of this country.

I think as years progress here in Australia will see different farming systems come into play like the Alley cropping system.[3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage

[2] https://lifeboat.com/blog/2022/09/how-australia-is-regreenin...

[3] https://www.agrifarming.in/alley-cropping-system-functions-o...

Edit to fix links