House debates

Wednesday, 29 March 2017

Bills

Social Services Legislation Amendment (Seasonal Worker Incentives for Jobseekers) Bill 2017; Second Reading

6:35 pm

Photo of Rebekha SharkieRebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I was part of the Nick Xenophon Team negotiating on the working-holiday maker reform package, and we were able to secure this excellent initiative, which will see more Australians working in horticulture and more Australians in the labour force. The Nick Xenophon Team comes to this parliament with the intention of ensuring that, wherever possible, we will seek to improve government policy and legislation. We are not obstructionist. We are determined to work constructively with government, and this bill is a shining example of that intention.

This legislation relates to a two-year trial which will allow more than 7,000 Australian jobseekers to do seasonal work and earn up to $5,000 without affecting income support payments. This is a major breakthrough. Until now, there was a disincentive for unemployed Australians to engage in seasonal work, as it meant that they would immediately lose their support payments. For growers in my electorate, this trial means that they will have better access to a wider and deeper pool of labour and will be supported by jobactive providers. This will give more jobs to more Australians—Australians on Newstart and youth allowance will be targeted, and they will be targeted into temporary work.

This bill will have a real and positive impact on unemployed Australians. If you are only offered a short period of work, particularly if you are a long-term unemployed person, you would be particularly anxious that you would lose you income support payments. If you consider that if you lost your income support payments you would have to deal with Centrelink to get those supports reinstated—we all know what an arduous process that is—it is clear that job seekers are being deterred from entering seasonal fruit picking work.

This bill seeks to reduce those barriers to entering into short term employment. Under the trial, unemployed job seekers who travel more than 120 kilometres to a farm will receive a $300 living away from home allowance on top of the wage for working on a farm, on top of their Centrelink payments. This is crucial to attracting metropolitan-based job seekers to the regions and attracting regional-based people to harvest in the regions. Jobactive providers will also be eligible for incentives under this trial, receiving up to $100 per participant per week. Again, this is a crucial measure to ensure that employment providers view seasonal work as a viable option to place people and offer them an incentive to work on a farm.

It is well known that there is high unemployment in the regions and this continues to grow. This is coupled with the fact that for too long successive governments have focused on the major cities and turned their back on regional and rural Australia. Schemes such as this one will encourage unemployed people from regional and metropolitan areas to work in areas they might not have considered before. I believe many will find they like the work they do in this trial and many will possibly stay on in the agricultural and horticultural sector. Certainly farmers tell me there are many jobs on farms after harvest, even with pathways to management. This makes this bill and this trial incredibly exciting.

My community has been faced with robocalls, television and radio ads and Facebook posts in the last 48 hours, run by the CFMEU, saying that I was not supportive of Australian jobs and that I was seeking for foreign workers taking Australian jobs. This is a lie, and I want to use the debate on this bill to confirm that. Here is a perfect example of the work that the Nick Xenophon Team is doing, in conjunction with government, to promote Australian jobs. Seasonal work is predominantly undertaken by international backpackers and migrants. While it has been used as a tool by backpackers as a means to make some money, and is often an opportunity to meet the requirements to stay another year in Australia, in my discussions with local growers it is clear that they are desperate for more workers in the agricultural sector, particularly during peak periods. All of those who undertake seasonal work will be trained in the tasks they are performing. For overseas workers, this can present issues. Growers have spoken to me about the significant language barriers they face in many instances when they try to communicate with their workers. There is also an issue that overseas workers will work for one season and then leave. This means training must be performed over and over again, at a significant cost to the farmer. If Australians are engaged in seasonal work there is a higher chance that they will return the following season. This means less training costs. It also gives the worker an opportunity to grow and develop new skills.

I want to address claims made by the CFMEU and the ACTU that I do not stand up for Australian jobs. I want to let the parliament and people of Australia know that these claims are blatant lies and fearmongering. My office has been inundated with constituents who are upset and angry that they have been robocalled by these unions. They are not upset and angry with me—the majority of callers are quite satisfied with the policies of my party, because they understand the difference between facts and lies. I say to the CFMEU, save your union members' hard-earned dues. Do not waste their money. Where were these robocalls when we had large amounts of 457 visa approvals? Let's look at this. Between 2007 and 2012-13, 457 visa approvals increased from 87,000 to 126,000. When was that? During the last Labor Government's years.

It is hypocritical for the finger to be pointed at the Nick Xenophon Team, when time and again we have stood up for Australian jobs and Australian families. I urge the Government to protect Australians from these unsolicited robocalls. Such calls should be required to clearly provide, at the beginning a message, information indicating where the call is coming from and who is funding the call. The receiver should then have the option to continue the call or terminate the call.

In relation to 457 visas, I want to see greater scrutiny in employer testing of the market. I want to see a tightening of the skilled occupation list and, importantly, I want to see an intensive focus on training Australians in occupations on those lists. We must put our effort into supporting the building of our own workforce in areas of need, particularly in regional Australia. With increasing unemployment, especially youth unemployment, we should need very few, if any, 457 visa holders in our country. Once again, we have shown initiative and willingness to negotiate with the government to achieve an outcome that will be significantly better for up to 7,600 unemployed Australians who are recipients of Newstart and youth allowance. Hundreds of growers of Australian produce will benefit from this. Importantly, this trial will be reviewed, and I believe the program will show an economic benefit across the regions and will be extended to other industries in regional Australia. I also urge the government to ensure that funding is set aside for this program to be promoted. Promotion needs to be undertaken with industry and business groups as well as economic development offices in regional councils and jobactive providers.

In summary, I thank the government for its negotiations in good faith on this trial. I hope that everything possible is done to promote it and that we see it blossom into a fully-fledged, permanent incentives scheme. Unemployed Australians will benefit. Australian farmers will benefit. Regional Australia will benefit. I commend this bill to the House.

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