The government had planned to welcome the first batch of guest workers, who will work as fruit pickers in rural areas, in late December.
Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs Duncan Kerr said it was now likely to happen at the end of January.
“We want to make sure (the scheme) is absolutely watertight, it protects those who are participating in it,” Kerr told ABC Television.
He rejected any suggestion the government was not committed to implementing the scheme.
The first 100 workers are expected to take up jobs in Swan Hill and Griffith, and up to 2,500 workers are likely to come to Australia during the next three years.
The scheme was still a good idea despite rising unemployment due to the financial crisis, Kerr said.
Many rural employers could not find workers and there was a long-running labor shortage in horticulture.
Employers would have to show they had not been able to fill the jobs with Australian workers before using the guest worker scheme, he said.
