Ag visa: Government admits it has so far failed to secure ASEAN interest

The government has blamed effective campaigning by the AWU for its failure to get the visa “up and running by Christmas”.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has admitted the government has so far failed to secure interest from ASEAN countries in its Agriculture visa. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has admitted so far no countries have signed up to the long-awaited Agriculture Visa, which he claimed would be “up and running by Christmas”.

Mr Littleproud today blamed effective campaigning by the Australian Workers Union against the visa for the government’s failure to sign prospective countries up to the scheme.

“The advice we had from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade back in around August was that they would be able to successfully complete some of those negotiations before Christmas,” Mr Littleproud said.

“They haven’t been able to do that – and can I say, some of that, in defence of Marise (foreign affairs Minister Marise Payne) and her department, is the AWU,” Mr Littleproud said.

“(The AWU) actually went and met with ambassadors and lobbied embassies of these southeast Asian countries, asking them not to sign up to this visa, because they believed Australian farmers would simply exploit every worker that came through – an absolutely abhorrent situation that has cast doubt in the minds of some of these countries,” he said.

AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said the union had “no desire to demonise agriculture, but nor will we stay silent about an industry which report after report has shown is addicted to worker exploitation and worker abuse. We will always speak up and fight when workers are being abused.”

“We have spoken to ambassadors and we will continue to tell them – and anyone else who will listen – that the new Ag Visa is dangerous and will pave the way for even more exploitation.

“We would love to tell David Littleproud about our concerns but he has shown no interest in meeting with us.

“If you cared at all about the potential for migrant workers to be exploited and abused you’d think you would want to hear all perspectives instead of burying your head in the sand,” Mr Walton said.

The Agriculture Visa was announced on the sidelines of a post-Brexit free trade agreement with the United Kingdom in August.

It followed an announcement by the government that UK working holiday visa holders would no longer be required to complete farm work to achieve a second year visa, a decision which would reduce the available pool of labour to Australian farmers.

The Agriculture Visa was to be based on the design of the Pacific Labour Scheme and was planned be open to the UK and interested south east Asian countries.

In October the government announced it was in discussion with “over four countries”.

Australian farming groups have been campaigning for a dedicated Agriculture Visa for years.

The National Farmers’ Federation welcomed the announcement of the visa in August, but said timing will be crucial as industry battles with the loss of UK working holiday visa holders and ongoing worker shortages caused by the pandemic.

Phase one of the Agriculture Visa trial was due to run from December to March next year.

Phase two of the trial, in which the visa would be opened to a broader range of employers, was set to commence in April 2022.

Work Visa Lawyers principal lawyer Chris Johnston told The Weekly Times earlier this month his firm, which specialises in immigration law, had little information to give to the hundreds of people who were contacting him hoping to apply for the visa, and the dozens of employers getting in touch looking for staff.

He said he was concerned if the visa wasn’t in place before the election it faced an uncertain future.

“The risk is that there’s an election coming up, and if (the visa) doesn’t get up and running and get a good volume of applications through before the election, we don’t really know what the future of that visa is,” Mr Johnston said.

The next federal election must be held no later than May 21 next year.