Labor to pay for Pacific workers’ travel to Australia

Labor has revealed its plans to help farmers attract workers by tweaking Australia’s Pacific worker visas.

A Labor government would pay for Pacific workers to travel to Australia and allow their family members to come and live and work in the country, as part of changes flagged if elected next month.

But it would dismantle the Federal Government’s long-awaited for Ag Visa, which it would bundle into existing Pacific visa schemes. This would restrict its access to workers from Pacific nations, instead of the UK and South-East Asian nations, which the Federal Government has been working towards.

In Darwin this morning, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the party would make changes to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme’s Seasonal Worker Program and Pacific Labour Scheme visas.

These changes include:

ENSURING the Federal Government paid for upfront travel costs for Pacific workers under the SWP. These costs are currently met by Australian farmers.

ALLOWING participants to bring family members to live and work in Australia.

ESTABLISHING a dedicated four-year Agriculture visa stream under PALM.

ENCOURAGING more permanent migration from Pacific nations with a new Pacific Engagement Visa, modelled on a New Zealand visa that allows visa applications to include their partner and dependent children aged 24 and under in their residence application.

Ms Wong said these changes would increase the attractiveness of the SWP for Australian farmers.

“We will make it easier for Pacific workers to fill labour shortages in Australia under the Pacific Labour Scheme by allowing participants to bring family members to live and work in Australia,” Ms Wong said.

Labor’s plan for agriculture, and the industry’s concern over a dwindling pool of workers, has been missing from the debate since the election was called a fortnight ago.

Australian farmers are increasingly relying on Pacific workers to pick and pack their crop with most backpackers having returned home over the past two years.

National Farmers’ Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said Labor had turned its back on a chance to be part of the solution to the sector’s workforce crisis.

“Unfortunately, Labor has today confirmed its intention to do away with the farmer developed Ag Visa,” Mr Mahar said. “The NFF and our members advocated for an Ag Visa for more than five years. The Australian Labor Party had a chance to demonstrate it had listened to farmers and was committed to a bright future for agriculture by backing the Ag Visa … In tricky spin, Labor will keep the Ag Visa in name only, with the Visa to be limited to workers from Pacific nations.”

Mr Mahar said the peak body was bitterly disappointed having worked with Labor’s agriculture spokeswoman Julie Collins and immigration spokeswoman Kristina Keneally for months on the sector’s critical labour shortage.

The NFF and the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance say the Pacific visa schemes are effective, but are not the solution, with both organisations wanting more nations involved.

AFPA chief executive Michael Rogers said there were challenges mobilising Pacific workers due to limited international flights and offshore processing delays.

“We’ve been really clear that our priority is to develop a productive and returning workforce for the horticulture sector. The PALM scheme is a central part of this objective, but it is not the only answer, industry needs robust visa programs, with high standards and across multiple countries to achieve this outcome,” Mr Rogers said.

He said the AFPA and other industry groups have reached out on numerous occasions to work with the Labor Party but to no avail.

The policy was announced as part of Labor’s defence plan for the Pacific on Tuesday.