The Queensland government is considering offering HECS debt repayment discounts to students who take jobs picking fruit in regional areas.
The plan has been proposed to make up for a shortage of backpackers due to travel restrictions, and may mean that students on welfare could keep JobKeeper payments while earning a wage.
The number of backpackers in Australia on working holiday VISAs has almost halved in the wake of coronavirus, and Richard Shannon from GowCom says they need to be replaced by Queenslanders.