Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Here we are again, having to deal with the government's incompetence when it comes to backpackers and backpacker visas in this country. It was on budget night a few years ago when we sat here in horror as the Treasurer announced a 32 per cent tax rate for backpackers, which of course we knew would decimate the labour that is required on our farm industries. From beginning to end, this government have been appalling when it comes to backpackers and the backpacker tax. It demonstrates that they completely misunderstand the purpose of the visa and why people come here. Originally, people came here on a working holiday for a cultural exchange. Young people under 30 would come over here independently and they'd work a bit and they'd travel a bit. But it has changed dramatically, and the government have just incentivised that in so many ways.

Labor is opposed to this legislation for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that it is a dirty deal. It is a deal that ensures the exploitation of holiday-makers, and people wanting to understand more about a potential employer will find it hidden. We need more transparency in this sector, not less. We all have seen the horror stories brought out by the media. I want to acknowledge the role the media has played in exposing some of the absolutely heartbreaking experiences of guest workers and holiday-makers in this country. In the agricultural sector there have been some horrific examples of exploitation, threats of violence, violence and, in some cases, sexual assault.

I want to acknowledge that it is not all growers. In fact, most growers and producers are outraged by the exploitation. I met last week with AUSVEG and the VFF at a roundtable in Melbourne. They said, 'We need to end this stain on our industry. These dodgy growers are making it hard for the rest of us.' One of the other comments that was made by AUSVEG and the VFF was that we need to find a skilled workforce that can work on our farms every year. The problem is that the government have made our ag industry beholden to one visa. They have failed to come up with a decent agricultural workforce policy. For a lot of our farmers, this is the only access that they have to labour, not just for harvest but all year round. Some of the growers in Victoria say that they feel like they're camp counsellors. Backpackers rotate around farms trying to get their 88 days. They don't have to work for just one employer for the 88 days. Farmers may hire someone in good faith and invest in the training, and after four days or 10 days that person quits because they've reached their 88 days and they can get their visa extension. That's just one of the problems with the way in which this visa has been constructed. We all remember the debate. It was the Farmers' Federation and the growers saying, 'Do not touch our backpackers.' But designs in the way this government have changed this visa mean that fewer and fewer people are working on the farms.

One of the other changes that the government had as part of this package was allowing backpackers to qualify for the extension, to do their 88 days, by working in northern Australia. So as a young backpacker over here you've got the choice: pick fruit or pull beers. Guess what they're doing, Deputy Speaker? They are working in the pubs and hospitality outlets in northern Australia. They are not going out and doing the hard work on farms. Why would you? If you get to qualify for the second year, why would you go work in agriculture? I can understand why our farmers feel cheated when it comes to this government and how they've behaved around the backpacker tax.

There is a lack of absolute transparency when it comes to backpackers and their experiences. The Fair Work Ombudsman doesn't have enough resources to investigate the exploitation that is going on in the sector. This is why this bill is before us. It's going to make it harder for there to be transparency.

The other problem that we have with the backpacker visa is the fact that it is now being used as a labour visa. We have people coming in in bulk numbers from places like Taiwan, Korea and Bulgaria, and working in industries where they are literally taking jobs from locals. There is a renewable energy solar farm that is being built outside of Townsville by 400 Bulgarian backpackers. No young, local, unemployed people in Townsville were given that job opportunity. No local electricians were given an opportunity to train and recruit apprentices. There are no Australian workers on that job; just 400 Bulgarian backpackers. When they finish that job, they'll be put on a plane and sent somewhere else.

The backpacker visa in this country is being used as a backdoor to cheap labour. We have to look at what is happening in our food processing and manufacturing sectors. Don KR and Hardwick Meatworks are in my electorate. Don KR had a union collective agreement where casuals were being paid a certain rate. Then they found out that they could use a labour hire firm that paid the award rate. The difference between the award rate and the union rate was $5 an hour. So those workers got ripped off and the locals lost jobs, but it's completely legal. The way in which backpacker labour is being used in our country to undermine collective agreements and to undermine locals for local jobs is simply outrageous. Yet what we've got before us is not a bill that addresses that issue; what we have before us is the cover-up—the cheap deal that they've done in the Senate. That's what we've got before us.

Then there is the example of Hardwick. Hardwick is a meat processor in my electorate. They directly employ all of their backpackers. They said, 'If we have to have people who are here on working holiday visas, we will at least pay them the same as the other workers.' Credit to them for doing that. However, they are now struggling to recruit people because of a quasi relationship. Because of the way in which labour hire recruits these overseas backpackers to come into our country, they now are struggling to get access to people coming in. In saying that, another thing I want to acknowledge about Hardwick is that they are a bit like our farmers in that they would actually prefer to have permanent residents working in these jobs. Recently they hired a number of Karen refugees who, through our humanitarian program, have settled in Bendigo in central Victoria. They are now recruiting Hazaras who have settled in Bendigo in central Victoria. They are now starting to take on some of this work. The last time I visited Hardwick, just a few weeks ago, they had six backpackers come on and six backpackers leave. The constant cost involved in training backpackers to work in food manufacturing, agriculture and other industries because they are trying to satisfy their 88 days is costing business a lot, and it is costing productivity.

This is the problem for this government. It is always just short-sighted policy. They're not thinking long term about work and having a skilled workforce. They're not working with industry to say, 'What are your labour gaps?' The previous speaker said, 'I don't understand why we can't get young Australians to work in these industries.' It is probably because you've gutted TAFE. Even last night, in your budget, you cut an extra $270 million from TAFE. It is probably because you've completely smashed regional universities. It is probably because you've broken the trainers that connect young people to the jobs that exist. You've not only done that—it's a double whammy—you've also created the incentive for labour hire companies to come in and undercut the collective agreements that exist in these places.

What we need to get back to in this country is this visa coming back to its original purpose: allowing young people to come here for a working holiday, work and travel. We have reciprocal rights, with young Australians going over to the UK. But what we are seeing happening with people on this visa is either exploitation or cheap sources of labour. It really concerns me when I hear examples of people who are working in social work for the New South Wales not-for-profit sector. They're working as social workers, and the visa that allows them to work as social workers is the working holiday-maker visa. That's not a cultural experience. We have serious issues in our country if the only way that you can engage someone to work in an industry is through a backpacker visa.

We have to have a serious look. If we have a skills shortage in our country, what is wrong with recruiting someone to give them the opportunity to live here permanently? Why make them go through the process of working for two different employers for six months? Why make them go through the process of working in northern Australia or in agriculture for 88 days? If there is a skills shortage in an industry, let's be serious about that. Let's work out if we can train local workers for it and, if we can't get locals to do the job, let's look for someone who's from overseas but give them the chance to permanently move here. Give them the chance to stay.

All employers of working holiday-makers are still required under this proposal to register with the ATO to ensure that they pay their tax. However, it removes the ability for a working holiday-maker to look up the details of their employer to make sure that they are paying the correct level of tax and are an employer of choice. Senate inquiry after Senate inquiry has exposed the exploitative nature of this visa. We as a country need to get serious about cracking down on that exploitation, but nothing before us deals with that. The backpacker tax is one of the biggest failures of this government in the way in which it has decimated the workforce that our farmers and the agricultural industry need, and the way in which it has been exploited and is literally taking locals from local jobs.

There's a lot of talk at the moment about meat processing. I used the example of my electorate, but in the electorate of New England there are 100 per cent labour hire meat processors in that electorate, with people who are here on a backpacking visa. Those workers have come here to make money and to take it home. That's a long way from the original intent of the visa, which was about a cultural exchange. The way in which this visa is being exploited and manipulated by big business is wrong. If we have a skills shortage or a labour shortage in this country, as I have said, and we cannot fill it with local workers first then we should look at a visa, but a visa that is fair and that gives people the opportunity to migrate here.

We are a country that's been built on migration: Ten Pound Poms and our postwar migrants that came here. People came here as skilled migrants and, if they left the country, we said, 'Okay, we've sponsored you; now you have to hand it back.' Today the experience for migrants is much, much worse. Today the experience for migrants is too often a series of visas which see them exploited. As a country, we have to get serious about how we manage migration. This bill that the government has put forward, as I've said, is basically trying to push it further underground. It is going to make it harder for workers to understand and know more about their employers. Given these significant cases of exploitation, Labor is saying we strongly oppose the measures in this bill. We have to have transparency. We have to give young people who are here as guest workers the opportunity to know who their employer is. We also have to review the exact nature of this visa. It has to be restored to its original intent, which is about a cultural exchange. I do share sympathy with our good growers that are out there and with employers like Hardwicks, who are now struggling to recruit people to come and work because of the changes that this government has made.

When I was in Cairns a few weeks ago meeting with workers about problems with labour hire, I met a young woman who actually was working in Indigenous health. She's over here from the United States. For her to stay for the second year, though, she had to work 88 days in hospitality. It just doesn't make sense. Once upon a time, she would have gone and worked on a farm, but why would she, given that she can work in hospitality? We have to get serious about our migration program in this country. We also have to get serious about this visa. It needs to be restored to its original intent of being a cultural exchange, a holiday-making visa. We want to see an end to the situation which we have at the moment where big labour-hire firms are recruiting bulk numbers of workers to come over here and work in areas which young Australians could be working in. Young Australians do want to work at Hardwicks. Young Australians do want to work at Don KR. Young Australians do want to be social workers and work as schoolteachers. But, at the moment, they can't, and, in many cases, it's because of the exploitation of backpackers.

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