Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Brockman—a proud regional Western Australian who's very keen to support the agriculture community in his home state in particular. Our government's committed to supporting our farmers get through the global pandemic, getting the workers and skilled workforce they need not just to get the crop off but to milk the cows, to shear the sheep and to continue the food task not just here domestically but to our export markets around the world. This is a $66 billion industry that we want to see continue to grow to $100 billion, and through the global pandemic we've, as a government, implemented a raft of measures—providing visas extensions and relaxing the 40 hours a fortnight for student visa holders. We've established an agricultural workers code with specific states, we've established the Australian agriculture visa and we've also reopened the Pacific mobility program.

But we have to recognise that these measures alone will not provide the workforce that Australian agriculture needs for the task ahead of it. We need to follow the national plan so that lockdowns at local, domestic, state and international levels become a thing of the past. As you know, Senator Brockman, you've got a great grain growing state in WA, and domestic and international border closures will have a significant impact on your grain growers getting the harvest off that I think is taking place in the northern Wheatbelt in over four weeks, and then you've got about six weeks. But if we don't get workers either from the east coast states or from overseas, because we do know that there's a global workforce supply chain when it comes to grain harvesting—Canada, Ukraine, right through the US and then they end up down with us, because these are quite specialist roles. I would ask that your premier actually support Western Australian grain growers by staffing the Bladin Village facility and allowing those workers— (Time expired)