Agriculture taskforce unites industry and unions but farmers sick of waiting

But Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said the taskforce was the first time the government had been able to get both the agriculture industry and the unions in the same room, which he labelled a "huge step forward" and "an historic agreement".

The taskforce - made up of representatives from government, agricultural sector, meat processing industry and several unions - will be given 12 months to solve the labour shortage, which is estimated to be 172,000 workers from paddock to plate.

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National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson said the taskforce positioned the agriculture industry to influence government policy, but acknowledged farmers "were sick of waiting".

"I can totally understand the sighs and the eye rolls at news of yet another process," Ms Simson said.

"Farmers were waiting for the ag visa, then waiting for countries to sign on to the visa, then waiting for the election, then the jobs summit. But still there is no meaningful outcome for the 172,000 worker shortage."

The Australian Workers' Union has been waging a running skirmish with the NFF, clashing over ag visas, workers' rights, importing shearers from New Zealand and seasonal piece rates.

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said if someone suggested he'd be standing side-by-side with the NFF a week ago, he "would have questioned whether or not you've been on the drink".

"It is strange standing up here with them.... But what the last couple of days has shown is some genuine desire across the board to reach out and find some meaningful solutions to the big problems," Mr Walton said.

Although the taskforce would look for medium to long-term solutions, Mr Watt said several announcements would help in the short term

More than $36m will be used to employ 500 additional staff to clear the visa backlog, including the 40,000 workers ready to come to Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

PALM applications are taking up to 16 weeks to process and once in Australia, a request to change farms is taking three weeks, making time-sensitive harvest work.

The overall migration cap will be lifted to 195,000, with an extra 9000 visas specifically for the regions (for a total of 34,000), while next year there will be 180,000 free TAFE positions, funded by state and federal governments, including within agricultural courses.

There is also a one-off increase in how much pensioners will be allowed to work before it affects their fortnightly payments. The $4000 bump will only apply to this financial year.

"There's a range of measures that we've committed to that will start right now and will have immediate benefit for agriculture," Mr Watt said.

"We will then work on some of the more long-term issues through that tripartite working group."

Nationals leader and former agriculture minister David Littleproud said the measures announced "wouldn't even touch the sides" and continued his call for the Coalition's ag visa to be reinstated.

The taskforce will meet monthly from October and plan to release an employment white paper in about a year's time.