Agriculture bureaucrats have failed to nominate how many workers Australia needs to fill farm labour gaps, sparking criticism of a "mind-blowing" lack of official data.
Labour shortages have been a critical issue for agriculture, with many crops set for a bumper harvest in coming months.
Labor senator Raff Ciccone was stunned officials were unable to provide an estimate.
"It's just mind blowing that the department cannot provide this committee with figures in terms of the labour shortage," he told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Wednesday.
"We keep saying we want young people to go out there, but we can't actually say how many young people we want to go out there."
Coronavirus border restrictions have sapped farmers of overseas workers.
That's prompted the government to fire up Pacific labour schemes and encourage young Australians to take a regional gap year.
Professional services firm EY estimated the worker shortfall was 26,000 in a recent report commissioned by the horticulture industry.
Agriculture department boss Andrew Metcalf, who was previously an EY partner but had no involvement in the research, said the firm would have checked its figures carefully.
He said the government had a strong feel for the overall numbers, but was unable to nominate a figure.
"We have a good understanding based upon advice from state governments," Mr Metcalf said.
Officials said they would check if a number could be provided to the committee later in the hearing.
Committee chair and Nationals senator Susan McDonald defended the department's failure to provide data.
"It's very difficult for the department given that so many seasonal workers move between agriculture, hospitality and other sectors," she said.
"We've got to be reasonable that the department is doing its best to try and track numbers but industry is having troubles itself on identifying exactly where the requirements are."
The Queensland senator said her son would soon join the fruit picking effort after finishing secondary school.
Mr Metcalf said young people could have the experience of a lifetime working on farms.
"I picked radishes on the outskirts of Toowoomba. It was 50 cents an hour back then so hopefully the wage rates are a bit better these days," he said.
In the federal budget, the government announced youth allowance concessions and relocation payments for people working on farms.
Australian Associated Press
