Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are going to be very few speakers on a whole bunch of topics if you can't stand and speak in this place and represent your constituencies unless you're actually somebody from that background. I'm supposing that the person opposite will never speak on industrial relations, because she's never represented a worker. I'm guessing that there's a whole bunch of people who've never worked in hospitality who will never speak about penalty rates and who will never, in their lives, speak about aged care, because they've never lived in aged care themselves or represented workers? That's not how our democracy works. The job of elected representatives is to represent all of their constituents, regardless of their industry. We're not in an exclusive club that says that only farmers can speak for farmers and only retail workers can speak for retail workers. Basic 101: you're an elected representative to represent your constituents in this place, and that is what we're doing.

What we are calling the government to account on today is their absolute failure in agriculture. It's not just about our farmers; it's about our farmworkers, the workers in the supply chain and the small businesses in the agricultural supply chain. Our farmers are integral. They are the people who manage the farms that produce the produce that underlies a lot of the Australian economy. We do need them, but we can't focus just on them.

Today, whilst those in this place are ranting and raving, the NUW released a report. They surveyed just under 700 farmworkers. Their findings are alarming, yet no-one on the government side has even looked at it. Today's report looked at farmworkers—the people working in horticulture who are picking our fruit and vegetables and packing our fruit and vegetables that are sold in Coles and Safeway as we speak. The report found that these workers are being paid on average about $15 an hour. That's well below the minimum wage. But that's the average. Some people are actually being paid less than that. In some cases people are being paid $1 or $2 an hour in our country on this government's watch. Some 68 per cent of the farmworkers said that they were being paid cash. They know it is wrong, but that is how the contractors, subcontractors and, in some cases, farmers were choosing to pay them.

This is the most alarming. For all the government's talk about being tough, standing up, making sure we're safe, protecting our borders and making sure that people are on the right visas, 67 per cent of workers confessed to being on the wrong visa—not having the appropriate work rights in this country to pick our fruit and vegetables. This is on this government's watch. They are forcing vulnerable people, who have come to this country, to work in a black economy on our farms. This is underpinning our agricultural industry.

This government is failing. They've danced around an agricultural visa. They've danced around changes to backpacker visas. They've danced around changes to improve the integrity of the seasonal worker visas and of the Pacific Islander visas. But to this date they have not stopped the systemic wage theft, they have not stopped the exploitation, they have not stopped the hot housing—10 people living in a caravan and being forced to work long hours on our farms—and they have not stopped the physical and sexual assault of young vulnerable workers on our farms in Australia. It's nothing short of modern slavery standards.

We hear a lot of talk in this place about agriculture but there is no real road map of how we are going to improve productivity. I've focused a lot on farmworkers in this, but there are a number of other areas where this government is failing. If you have 100 per cent turnover of your workforce every picking season, your productivity is going to be low—fact. There is a real lack of training and a real lack of planning when it comes to our workforce.

Let's look at the agricultural industry and how it underpins food manufacturing jobs. This government doesn't talk about manufacturing or the fact that 25 per cent of all the manufacturing jobs are actually food manufacturing jobs. Let's talk about SunRice. If we don't grow rice, we won't have jobs at SunRice. That is hundreds of jobs. If we lose milk and don't have dairy, we will lose manufacturing jobs. When it comes to agriculture this government has no concrete plan to roll out to secure the industry and to secure the jobs.

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