Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management, Senator Ruston. Can the minister please inform the Senate of the importance of a seasonal workforce for our agricultural sector in securing the economic recovery in rural and regional communities following the challenges posed by COVID?

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

I thank Senator McMahon for her question and her ongoing interest in ensuring the farmers of Australia, particularly the farmers of the Northern Territory, have got the workforce that they need to be able to harvest their crops.

We know that the Australian agricultural sector is an absolute economic powerhouse for this country. Last year alone, $66 billion was generated in our rural and regional economies through our agricultural exports. Our farmers and our exporters should be absolutely justifiably proud of the achievements that they deliver on behalf of Australia, feeding 80 million people worldwide and employing 1.6 million Australians. It is one of the absolute underlying economic drivers of the Australian economy.

But, as you would know, Senator McMahon, in many places around the country, we still have a significant reliance on an overseas workforce to support our agricultural sector. In fact, there are some places around the country where 90 per cent of the workforce comes from overseas. The pandemic, because of the reduction in the number of working holiday-makers in Australia falling quite significantly, has absolutely highlighted the challenges faced by our regional communities. That's why this government, the Morrison-Joyce government, has put in place programs to support the agricultural sector like AgAttract. Together, these sorts of programs are able to provide the agricultural sector with the workforce and skills to continue to build on its workforce to ensure the farmers of Australia have the workforce they need.

Furthermore, we also introduced the National Agricultural Workers Code in September last year to facilitate mobility in the agricultural sector so that we could make sure that we could get workers to be able to move across borders much more easily; to make sure that we were providing the workforce that the Australian farmers need to get their crops off and to make money for Australia.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McMahon, a supplementary question?

Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike those opposite, who have no support for agriculture whatsoever, can the minister outline the ways that the Liberal-National government is supporting our farmers to meet the workforce needs?

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

The government of which I'm proud to be a member and of which Senator McMahon is also proud to be a member has worked extremely hard to make sure that we have programs in place so that we can support our farmers through the pandemic. One such program, which is a program that's very close to the hearts of both Minister Payne and me, is the Pacific Labour Scheme. I also acknowledge the amazing advocacy and leadership from Senator McMahon on the matter to make sure that there was an adequate workforce in the Northern Territory to make sure that your mango crop got picked this year. You were faced with a crisis, you came to us, and we were able to solve the problem by bringing in a number of people from Vanuatu to enable the crop in the Northern Territory to be picked. That happened back in September, and it was a great success. In addition to that, the government introduced the Agricultural Workers Code to make sure that the state borders were open. We also introduced AgMove to provide support to people to move to the country, to support our agricultural sector.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McMahon, a final supplementary question?

Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How will the recently announced agricultural visa further assist farmers to meet their workforce requirements now and into the future, in addition to existing highly successful labour mobility arrangements?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to 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.