July 17, 2025 • 5 mins
Young Australian agriculture influencer with 700,000 followers encourages young Kiwis to get across the Tasman for the harvest season. Plus, she warns of the red flags to look out for when it comes to worker exploitation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is an influencer? Anyone can be an influencer these days.
I talked to a few influencers here on the country.
One of them is a young Australian woman by the
name of Zoe Carter. I spoke to her on January
the twenty fourth of this year, and I just looked
back on the text. Zoe, it said, you're a dynamic
young Australian AG influencer with seven hundred thousand followers, a
(00:21):
businesswoman who has a boundless passion for farming. Does that
still hold true? What six months later?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Yeah, I'd say it still holds true.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah, good on you. Hey, just give us, just remind
us a wee bit about your background, because you grew
up in the city, went out worked on a farm,
you had a bad accident I think, or something something
befell you, if that's the correct word, and then you
had to change course.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, pretty much. That's a good summary. I've got to
grow up in the city and never really saw AG
as a career pathway until after I crushed by a
horse and then thought I can't keep doing this. So
I don't know if AG is much better. But did
that for a few years. I loved it. My body
you just couldn't keep up with me. Unfortunately, with my
past injuries, I've had a hit replacement at twenty five.
So now I work a little bit more behind the scenes.
(01:09):
I'd say more of an advocate for the egg industry
rather than an influenza because I get a bit touchy
about about that one. And then you run three businesses
alongside all that as well.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, okay your businesses are you one of your businesses
and website called Agriculture jobs as wide, so you connect
people who are looking for a job in Australia and
New Zealand with a job an egg.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, pretty much. So we're a job spoard, so we
don't do any of the screening, not a recruitment agency,
but focus on pairing up perman Australian residents and New
zealanin citizens because New Zealand citizens have the same working
right so there's a lot of Australians do. So pairing
up those kinds of people with positions and helping them
make it easier to find them. So I guess all
(01:54):
the jobs ideally are in one place, so it just
makes a lot easier people looking. So we focus on
every agg job in Australia that's available, no matter your
experience level. We have first year opportunities all up to
quite high level management. So so, Zoe.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Are you being flooded with key wee candidates because we've
had a net migration loss of thirty thousand New Zealanders
to Australia and twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, look, I do notice that there is quite a
lot of New Zealanders applying for roles, especially to airy positions,
especially manager roles. Like we obviously Australia is bigger in size,
much bigger, the properties are bigger. We tend to have
more opportunities for you know, workers and things like that,
Whereas you know, I find a lot of like you know,
for example, Victoria is a lot of smaller farms where
(02:42):
a lot of it's family runs, so they don't really
have as many opportunities for work. Whereas you know, you
get to elsewhere and there's that many opportunities and that
many you know areas where you can extend your career.
I can see why new Zealanders are coming over. But yeah,
I have I feel like I've seen a jump in
candadates applying for jobs for New Zealanders looking for opportunities
in Australia.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I want to ask you about worker exploitation. Not only
key we work as ossie workers, important workers or foreign workers.
Australia's Fair Work on Birdsman inspectors found that more than
eighty percent of horticultural businesses and parts of Victoria were
in breach of laws to protect workers following a three
(03:23):
year investigation. Is it that bad?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, Look, that situation I'm not overly familiar with. Again,
we focus on permanent Sione residents, so we're not really
working with the visa holders and sponsorships, which unfortunately are
commonly exploited in the industry. That's one of the reasons
they're quite favored in a lot of a lot of roles. So, yeah,
(03:47):
it does happen. Unfortunately, there's a lot of things coming
into place, like there's a few businesses that are kind
of rising up, going right. We need to see better
you know, circumstances and in things like modern day slavery
as well as another one that you know does addu
see pop. But so it is very dependent. It's not
an area of expertise for us, but yeah, it is.
It does happen. A lot, unfortunately, but it is improving for.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Any young key we is listening to this and hopefully
they're not going to migrate across the tasman Oi's one thing.
Staying over there as another one. What are the red
flags to look out for when you're looking for a
job an egg?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh, look, there there's quite a few. If you know
anyone local to the area that you're going to be
traveling to. I definitely recommend reaching out to locals and
seeing if you know, there's any reviews back for them,
even just googling their name and the business name is
seeing if anything pops up, you know, just you know,
housing conditions, asking you know what the house is like,
if there's any photos, because obviously traveling across, you know,
(04:42):
across quite a long way can be a little bit
daunting if the communications very short and sharp, if they
don't want to mention pay rates or you know, talking
about you know, when you're going for a position, you
know you need to understand what the benefits of perks are.
You know, you are entitled to know that, So asking
those quie and if they get a little bit touchy
about it, you know, it's probably a little bit of
(05:02):
a red flag. And then you know again it is
hard until you get over there. But things like your
stock condition and temperament. If your stock are in poor
nick or they you know they're very flighty, very on
edge cattle or sheep, you know highly likely. You know
it's probably may not be the best environment. And you know,
you know, machinery conditions, if everything's kind of falling apart,
(05:23):
not well maintained and looked after. I see that as
a bit of a bit of a red flag, but
it is it is hard to really note before you
come over that a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Of it's just research is that we can out of Australia.
Thanks for time today on the country.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Thank you very much.
What is an influencer? Anyone can be an influencer these days.
I talked to a few influencers here on the country.
One of them is a young Australian woman by the
name of Zoe Carter. I spoke to her on January
the twenty fourth of this year, and I just looked
back on the text. Zoe, it said, you're a dynamic
young Australian AG influencer with seven hundred thousand followers, a
(00:21):
businesswoman who has a boundless passion for farming. Does that
still hold true? What six months later?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Yeah, I'd say it still holds true.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah, good on you. Hey, just give us, just remind
us a wee bit about your background, because you grew
up in the city, went out worked on a farm,
you had a bad accident I think, or something something
befell you, if that's the correct word, and then you
had to change course.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, pretty much. That's a good summary. I've got to
grow up in the city and never really saw AG
as a career pathway until after I crushed by a
horse and then thought I can't keep doing this. So
I don't know if AG is much better. But did
that for a few years. I loved it. My body
you just couldn't keep up with me. Unfortunately, with my
past injuries, I've had a hit replacement at twenty five.
So now I work a little bit more behind the scenes.
(01:09):
I'd say more of an advocate for the egg industry
rather than an influenza because I get a bit touchy
about about that one. And then you run three businesses
alongside all that as well.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, okay your businesses are you one of your businesses
and website called Agriculture jobs as wide, so you connect
people who are looking for a job in Australia and
New Zealand with a job an egg.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, pretty much. So we're a job spoard, so we
don't do any of the screening, not a recruitment agency,
but focus on pairing up perman Australian residents and New
zealanin citizens because New Zealand citizens have the same working
right so there's a lot of Australians do. So pairing
up those kinds of people with positions and helping them
make it easier to find them. So I guess all
(01:54):
the jobs ideally are in one place, so it just
makes a lot easier people looking. So we focus on
every agg job in Australia that's available, no matter your
experience level. We have first year opportunities all up to
quite high level management. So so, Zoe.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Are you being flooded with key wee candidates because we've
had a net migration loss of thirty thousand New Zealanders
to Australia and twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, look, I do notice that there is quite a
lot of New Zealanders applying for roles, especially to airy positions,
especially manager roles. Like we obviously Australia is bigger in size,
much bigger, the properties are bigger. We tend to have
more opportunities for you know, workers and things like that,
Whereas you know, I find a lot of like you know,
for example, Victoria is a lot of smaller farms where
(02:42):
a lot of it's family runs, so they don't really
have as many opportunities for work. Whereas you know, you
get to elsewhere and there's that many opportunities and that
many you know areas where you can extend your career.
I can see why new Zealanders are coming over. But yeah,
I have I feel like I've seen a jump in
candadates applying for jobs for New Zealanders looking for opportunities
in Australia.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I want to ask you about worker exploitation. Not only
key we work as ossie workers, important workers or foreign workers.
Australia's Fair Work on Birdsman inspectors found that more than
eighty percent of horticultural businesses and parts of Victoria were
in breach of laws to protect workers following a three
(03:23):
year investigation. Is it that bad?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, Look, that situation I'm not overly familiar with. Again,
we focus on permanent Sione residents, so we're not really
working with the visa holders and sponsorships, which unfortunately are
commonly exploited in the industry. That's one of the reasons
they're quite favored in a lot of a lot of roles. So, yeah,
(03:47):
it does happen. Unfortunately, there's a lot of things coming
into place, like there's a few businesses that are kind
of rising up, going right. We need to see better
you know, circumstances and in things like modern day slavery
as well as another one that you know does addu
see pop. But so it is very dependent. It's not
an area of expertise for us, but yeah, it is.
It does happen. A lot, unfortunately, but it is improving for.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Any young key we is listening to this and hopefully
they're not going to migrate across the tasman Oi's one thing.
Staying over there as another one. What are the red
flags to look out for when you're looking for a
job an egg?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh, look, there there's quite a few. If you know
anyone local to the area that you're going to be
traveling to. I definitely recommend reaching out to locals and
seeing if you know, there's any reviews back for them,
even just googling their name and the business name is
seeing if anything pops up, you know, just you know,
housing conditions, asking you know what the house is like,
if there's any photos, because obviously traveling across, you know,
(04:42):
across quite a long way can be a little bit
daunting if the communications very short and sharp, if they
don't want to mention pay rates or you know, talking
about you know, when you're going for a position, you
know you need to understand what the benefits of perks are.
You know, you are entitled to know that, So asking
those quie and if they get a little bit touchy
about it, you know, it's probably a little bit of
(05:02):
a red flag. And then you know again it is
hard until you get over there. But things like your
stock condition and temperament. If your stock are in poor
nick or they you know they're very flighty, very on
edge cattle or sheep, you know highly likely. You know
it's probably may not be the best environment. And you know,
you know, machinery conditions, if everything's kind of falling apart,
(05:23):
not well maintained and looked after. I see that as
a bit of a bit of a red flag, but
it is it is hard to really note before you
come over that a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Of it's just research is that we can out of Australia.
Thanks for time today on the country.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Thank you very much.
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