Labor Turns its Back on Ag Visa?

Article by: Hari Yellina

A national Labor government would virtually abolish Australia’s agriculture visa regime even before migrant workers could be admitted, according to the party. According to the opposition, an Albanese Labor government would instead create a new agriculture stream under the established Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) programme, replacing the Coalition’s announcement last year of a unique visa for forestry, fisheries, and farm workers. Labor also claims that its government would pay for Pacific workers’ initial travel fees to Australia, allow them to invite their families to live and serve here, and promote permanent residency through a new Pacific Engagement Visa.

Pat Conroy, the shadow minister for international development, said a new approach was required to help farmers deal with workforce shortages and improve Australia’s ties with the Pacific. Mr Conroy stated, “This government’s existing agricultural visa is not working; not a single worker has entered the nation under this agriculture visa; it has failed Australian farmers and the larger Australian society.” He promised to cut “up-front expenses to employers” by “covering all but $300 of the airfares, which we would collect from workers through the tax system.” The Nationals unveiled Australia’s farm visa on the side lines of a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom last year, but no workers have yet arrived on the visa.

It was supposed to be a demand-driven programme that would bring in skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled people. Although a memorandum of understanding was agreed with Vietnam last month, allowing Vietnamese workers to work on the visa, tax legislation allowing foreign workers to work in Australia has yet to be discussed in parliament. In Darwin, Mr Conroy confirmed Labor’s intentions for the visa, while the opposition pledged more than $500 million in Pacific and Timor-Leste programmes. Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, later stated that the memorandum of understanding agreed with Vietnam will be honoured. Labor, according to Ms Keneally, supports an agriculture visa. “The source countries are the difference between Labor and the [Coalition] government,” Ms Keneally explained.