Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I'm having dinner with the Georgian, Turkish and Azerbaijani ambassadors. I'm looking forward to that opportunity because, as the shadow minister for international development and the Pacific, it's important—as the member for Jagajaga has just said—to have diplomatic relations.

I do take umbrage, however, with the assertion that the coalition in government between 2013 and 2022 did not do enough in the space of foreign assistance, foreign development and foreign aid. I have to say that, as a foreign affairs minister, Senator Marise Payne was excellent. Her work with the then minister, the member for Mitchell, to rescue Australians and others when Afghanistan collapsed was nothing short of remarkable. Indeed, there should be a movie made with the rescues at the airport and the scenes there, and getting people out of the capital when everything went asunder.

More than that, this shadow portfolio role is important in ensuring that the government has bipartisanship in many areas of foreign affairs. I have worked well with Senator Birmingham, the shadow foreign affairs minister, along with the member for Shortland, the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, and, indeed, Senator Penny Wong, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. We've gone on a very successful trip to the Pacific. No-one put their body on the line more than I did on that trip. Just google my name and the Federated States of Micronesia and you will see that sakau is a potent brew!

I was very pleased that the government answered the cross-party call to provide more assistance for Kenya and the Horn of Africa, which has endured five failed rain seasons. When you've been to the remote areas of Kenya and you speak to the local villagers there about their needs and wants, they very much value Australian agricultural expertise. I have to say that I was absolutely impressed with the number of women going into agriculture and the number of women who were apiarists and had lifted that side of agriculture such that it was providing great domestic supplies and a great potential export for Kenya, despite the failed climate and despite everything that was being thrown at them. Times have been troubled in that area of the world, and I was pleased that, when the delegation returned, Minister Wong saw fit to increase the amount of assistance on the back of the letter co-signed by coalition and government members. It was good bipartisan politics.

I have been disappointed with the government's response to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme. The PALM scheme was introduced in April 2022 during the Morrison coalition government. It replaced the Seasonal Workers Program which the Gillard government had introduced in 2012 and the Pacific Labour Scheme under the Turnbull administration in 2018. The scheme allows Australian businesses to hire workers through nine Pacific island countries and Timor-Leste, but the government finally came to the table—kicking and screaming, I might add, on the back of losing a lot of the PALM workers—to provide a more even range of work availability with an average of 120 hours over four weeks. It needs to be across eight to 12 weeks. That's what the stakeholders tell me. My question to the minister is: will you do that to bring it in line with the horticultural award?

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