Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

The new agricultural visa arrangements will be very important in putting in place a workforce for our agricultural sector to play an absolutely essential role in delivering the workers that we all know on this side are needed for us to pick our crops. The success of the Pacific workers scheme has demonstrated how these sorts of programs are able to supplement the workforce for our agricultural sector to make sure that we are able to get the crops off. Currently, in Australia, we have over 12,000 people from the Pacific and Timor-Leste, and more are on their way. The government is currently consulting with stakeholders on streamlining these programs to make sure that they work even better, to make sure that our agricultural workforce is there to pick the crops, harvest the fruit, and make sure that we are providing the food not just to Australia but to the rest of the world—the clean, green, world-class produce that Australian farmers are so famous for.