Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by acknowledging the work of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration on this inquiry. They unanimously suspended when members couldn't travel to public hearings due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March this year. I think I was part of one of the last site visits, as part of a public hearing in Darwin with the agriculture committee, when that was called short. But it is important work, as this is, and they go hand in hand. In Darwin, we heard that if we are to lift agricultural capacity in Australia to $100 billion a year then we've got to get migration right. We also need to get water right. There's a lot that we need to get right. I understand the reasons why this committee couldn't continue its work. While the committee's report didn't have the opportunity to provide specific recommendations, it does note that it wrapped up early because the health situation had changed and that the circumstances of regional communities would be changed for some time to come. I think this is in itself an important conclusion—that the challenges that rural and regional Australia were facing before this pandemic were already catastrophic for a variety of reasons and that now, during and after COVID regional Australia is unfortunately going to suffer even more.

Without migration in the short term, our harvests are literally at risk of rotting on the ground, in terms of the mango crop, as the previous speaker alluded to. That's a real threat with the mango harvest that's going on in the NT at the moment. We've got our Pacific mates to thank, particularly those from Vanuatu, because we're going to have some of them helping us to get the crop off the trees. If we can get more, quickly, it will help us to get the rest of the crop off the trees and, hopefully, we can avert a catastrophic scenario for our farmers. Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks, I don't know whether you saw today in that other chamber but I was actually expelled by the Speaker for making this simple point—that the Minister for Agriculture is talking about a pilot and the truth is, once a pilot has run its course and we get further seasonal workers onto the ground, it will be too late for most of that crop.

Apparently, we knew that the mango crop needed to be picked at this time of the year. Apparently that's a known and, unfortunately, because we had an NT election on the weekend, those opposite—not these particular members opposite, mind you, I hasten to add, but members of the executive—I would put it, weren't exactly helpful to the Labor Northern Territory government. We all knew the mango harvest was coming. We all knew there was going to be a requirement to have some sort of piloting of a situation where these workers come in from Vanuatu or Timor Leste, spend some time in quarantine and then go out to the farms to do their work. We knew that work had to be done, but I think it was more important for the minister to come up to Darwin and do a bit more of a he-said, she-said. That was particularly disappointing, and I thought he was a bigger man than that. When it comes to playing a bit of partisan politics, our farmers apparently come second or third. Anyway, we're past that now.

The Northern Territory Labor government have been re-elected for another four-year term. I think we have got a bit of a chance to get some growth in the agricultural sector. I think they're serious about it. I would like the current federal government to get a bit more serious about helping them to achieve their outcomes. This committee was told of the deep support for migration in Australia's regions and we've heard that from previous speakers on both sides. We all know that our farmers are crying out and our regions are crying out for both unskilled and skilled migrants to do some of the work that is required, particularly in my case in the Northern Territory.

The City of Darwin made one of the submissions to this committee's inquiry, as did Michael Gunner, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. The lord mayor, Kon Vatskalis, put in his submission, that Darwin, the city I represent, is one of the most diverse places in Australia, with nearly 30 per cent of people born overseas and a rich mix of 60 nationalities and 70 different ethnic backgrounds. I think that's probably understating it. I think there are probably more nationalities and more backgrounds than that. Kon wrote that in Darwin migrants fill skills shortage gaps in key industries, including mining, offshore oil and gas production, pastoralism, tourism and horticulture.

In his submission, Chief Minister Michael Gunner called on the federal government to enable population growth of 2,600 people per year over the next 10 years in order for this to be effectively achieved. He wrote that the Territory's efforts need to be supported by the Australian government, saying, 'It would be good through their migration and legislation policy that the jurisdictions of Australia that depend on the federal government to do their job could have a regional growth policy and drive it with some seriousness.'

With migration being a federal matter and with these borders being closed for some time—they will reopen at some stage—I would say to the Prime Minister and to the Minister for Agriculture that we can't just simply snap back to where we were before the crisis. That's not an option.

We are facing a trying hour as a nation and as an economy, but, as previous speakers have said, regional Australia will face a more acute crisis. And that's not just because of COVID; it's because of that structural weakness in the economy and in our migration policy, particularly in relation to the regions. It has been clear for some time now that the government's plans for migration haven't been working. If we're all honest with ourselves, that has been pretty clear. The current federal government has had seven years—seven!—to deliver for regional Australia. It has failed in those seven years. For years the government have relied on temporary migration as a solution, and now with the borders closed it highlights the fact that they've failed to invest in skills training and apprenticeships for young Australians. We all know that there are several gaps, to the extent we've seen the defunding of VET by some $3 billion, so of course that's going to have an effect.

In the time remaining, I want to refer to something that the Northern Territory government mentioned in their submission to the inquiry. They highlighted the government's decision to adopt a more expansive definition of 'regional' to mean everything but, by the looks of it, the south-east coast and the major cities. That has been fairly criticised by some who saw it as undermining what genuinely regional areas are. We saw that Darwin was all of a sudden in competition with much larger cities like the Gold Coast. All of a sudden we had semiskilled workers and skilled workers leaving Darwin to move down to the Gold Coast, which wasn't helpful for us. The Gold Coast, being close to Brisbane and having a much bigger economy, shouldn't be placed in the bag of being a regional area of Australia. (Time expired)

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