Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to speak to this MPI, which is about agriculture, rural and regional Australia and the needs of our farming sector. I don't really know how to respond to that big muddle from the member for Franklin. I know the member for Franklin is doing her best representing the needs of farmers and rural Australians; I would never say that that was a bad thing. But I think there is a great gap where the member for Hunter is missing; unlike the member for Franklin, he actually lived in a farming area, spent a lot of time speaking to farmers and seemed to have that connection with what they needed.

Ms Collins interjecting—

The member for Franklin is constantly sledging, and I understand that's the Labor Party way of the world at the moment. However, I sat and listened carefully to her remarks, and I would ask her to do the same for mine. It's very clear from what she said that the Labor Party hasn't got the connection with farmers that it claims to have. It's very clear from what she said that the Labor Party does not represent the interests of farmers. It's very clear from what she said that the people of rural and regional Australia are highly likely to continue voting for the Liberal and National parties—not that we ever take their vote for granted, but we live and work and raise our families and represent farms and farmers.

The MPI is:

The government's failure to adequately support the urgent needs of the agriculture sector.

Well, if I were to say, 'What are the needs of the agriculture sector?' I know what most people would say in answer to that question: markets, confidence, free trade agreements, a plan to come out of COVID and an understanding of what the lives in rural and regional Australia that are connected with the economic reality of farming are like. That's what I would expect people to say. But do you know what I also get from rural and regional constituents? I of course represent many of them myself in my own electorate. I get, 'Please don't talk our sector down; please talk about the hope, the optimism and what we can actually contribute to the national accounts, to the national psyche and to the view of Australia in the world.' What is all this gloom and doom? What is all this sad sack stuff? I mean, it is classic Labor: where there is a good story to tell, they turn it into a bad story. Where there is hope, they turn it into something dreary, gloomy and pessimistic.

I can tell you that one of the really good stories within Australia today is in fact the agriculture sector. I look at the farms around me, and the canola is ripening, the price is high, farmers are out marking their lambs and the commodity prices are good. And we are working hard—the trade minister and so many people who, again, understand the needs of rural and regional Australia—to build those markets. Yes, the member for Franklin did mention the UK free trade agreement. There are huge opportunities for farmers there, as there have been in all the free trade agreements that we have negotiated, because that's what underpins our place in the international market for agricultural goods and services.

I love every opportunity I get to talk about the importance of the agriculture sector—the farming, fishing and forestry sectors, which are forecast to be valued at $71 billion in 2021—$66 billion in farm gate value and $5.3 billion from the fisheries and forestry sectors. It's one of the only industries to grow in value despite the challenges of 2020, including the bushfires, drought, COVID-19 and global trade disruptions. It's an industry that's growing. It's an industry that has a bright future. It employs over 334,000 people, and a further 243,000 in the food and beverage manufacturing sector. The whole Australian agricultural supply chain employs 1.6 million people. It is incredibly important to us, and we understand that we need to be in constant communication to hear about the needs of the farming sector.

The member for Franklin talked about the agricultural visa, but I wasn't sure what point she was making. On one hand, she said we should be training young Australians. On the other hand, she said we should bring people into the country—then that we shouldn't bring people into the country, that it's got something to do with the UK trade deal. Yes, of course it has; the minister has acknowledged that. 'Are workers going to be protected?' 'No, they're not protected.' 'Where are the workers? Where is the quarantine?' It really wasn't clear. I know that the unions, who inform so much of Labor Party thinking, don't want to see the ag visa. Maybe that's why the member for Franklin asked, 'Why aren't we training young Australians?' But then she said that farmers are terrified. I wasn't sure what that was about. She wants to know what the conditions are, and she wants to be reassured that the people on the ag visa will not be exploited.

But actually they're good things to say. They're things that I can reassure the member for Franklin about, and they're things that are completely implicit and built into our seasonal worker Pacific Islander scheme, where it's really important that before an employer is accepted into the scheme they demonstrate the care factor for the people who are coming from the Pacific islands—how the employer will look after them and make sure they meet all their needs, not just their employment needs. Having met some of the employers who provide that workplace, I'm really proud of how they want to work constructively and closely with the people who come here on that scheme, how they become involved with their families and how they sometimes see them year after year. So yes, those things are really important. But to suggest that there's something—well, it's not clear, from the member for Franklin, whether we want the ag visa or we don't want the ag visa, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, or whether it's our fault because of the fact that it's needed in the first place.

What this government is doing is getting on with it, getting the stuff done that we know our farmers expect of us and announcing a solution to the current workforce crisis that we're seeing all across rural and regional Australia—not everywhere, and not every month, but we certainly have identified it, we have certainly recognised it, and now we are doing something about it. So I'm really pleased that the minister for agriculture has led the charge, and other ministers, of course; it also relates to the immigration minister and the Minister for Home Affairs and indeed every member of this side of the parliament, who want to see the workforce on farms—and not just on farms for a fruit picking season, but building their lives longer term in regional Australia.

You can often think of this in a simplistic way—people are out there to pick the fruit, and then that's it. But there's so much more. In the area I represent, around Griffith and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, where I know a lot of these workers are desperately needed, people offer a future—a permanent residency pathway—and welcome those people from overseas as members of their community. They enjoy the differences they bring and love what they add to the social fabric of those communities in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. It's not just there; it's across every part of Australia, where we see the workforce welcomed from overseas. So, once it gets going, it will be a really good thing.

I'm not clear about whether Labor support it or not, because, on the one hand, they said they did want it and then, on the other hand, that they didn't want it, and then they said that they weren't sure about the quarantine and that we hadn't done the right thing and then asked why we were doing it at all. But, of course, we know that the AWU has said it is a disgrace, and I don't know why that is. But I think the energy that the member for Franklin is putting into her remarks today could perhaps be directed against the union movement that has such an objection to this visa and the genuine opportunities that it will bring not just for regional communities but also for the individuals who will come to Australia and make it their home.

The regulatory framework for the Australian agricultural visa will be in place by the end of September, with the first workers to arrive once negotiations with partner countries are completed and quarantine arrangements can be agreed and finalised. The visa will be available to skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers across a broad range of agricultural industries, including meat processing and the fishery and forestry sectors, and will provide a basis for the ongoing growth of our primary industries as they strive to reach $100 billion in value by 2030, because that's our aim. We're sticking to it. This is part of our plan to get there, and we know the workforce is critical to that. So I'm pleased to update the House today with some more information around the visa.

The agricultural workers visa will be a fully demand-driven visa. It will consider issues such as permanent residency pathways and regional settlement. Full conditions will be developed and implemented within three years. The visa will be open to applicants from a range of countries, which will be negotiated through bilateral agreements with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and discussions will commence imminently. It will supplement the existing Seasonal Worker Program and the Pacific labour scheme, which are both very popular. They'll actually remain the mainstay for meeting workforce shortages in our primary industry sector. We've brought in more than 10,000 Pacific and Timorese workers to assist with addressing critical workforce shortages since September last year. We've already announced that between now and March 2022 we'll double the number of Pacific workers in Australia under the Pacific labour scheme.

Rather than the member speaking about farmers being terrified, perhaps she would like to concentrate on the opportunities that farmers bring to the whole of Australian society, the incredible value that they add, the wonderful produce that we see all around this country, both nationally and internationally, and the work that they will continue to do in innovation, in science, in biodiversity and in productivity—again, a fantastic story told every day by Australian agriculture.

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