John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I commence with my contribution, I'd like to thank my colleagues for their wonderful contributions to the condolence motion for Susan Ryan. They were really worthwhile. What a great team—Labor at its best—in this time.

COVID has hit many industries hard, as people have stayed home and away from shops, venues, airports and more. But, while we sit in lockdown and think of the places we can't go, it's easy to forget that we are largely cut off from the world and that people can't come here. While holiday-makers wouldn't be able to patronise those shops, venues and airports either, there is a group of people who we need to come here—namely, working holiday-makers. Our farmers depend on working holiday-makers to pick their crops, and, in turn, we rely on them to keep the fresh produce in our supermarkets and one of our larger trade exports running. We need to look at this problem with flexibility and practicality but also urgency. The Joint Standing Committee on Migration has been looking at this issue for a few months now, working feverishly to gather evidence and to examine potential solutions. I believe we will bring forward our full report in the coming months, but this late stage of the season has forced us to bring forward this interim report to specifically address the problems that farmers are facing now. I would like to thank the chair, the member for Berowra, and the co-chair, the member for Calwell, for conducting this inquiry so well and having the flexibility to allow us to deliver the solutions that people in the bush need now.

The committee has settled on 10 recommendations. Many of these recommendations relate to short-term payments, incentives and adaptations to existing arrangements like JobKeeper. These are excellent recommendations, and I recommend them to the government. The recommendations I'm most proud of are the ones that hope to change the culture around working on farms and young people's attitude to travel. Recommendation 1 states:

… The Committee recommends that the Government urgently develop and implement a 'Have a Gap Year at Home Campaign' to attract young Australians, particularly the current cohort of Year 12s and university graduates, to undertake regional work. The campaign should:

We have a great cultural institution of travelling overseas for a gap year borne out of an outdated mentality that we are in a far corner of the world and that culture and wonderment is something that can only be found on foreign shores. But those notions that Australia is the land that culture forgot are old-fashioned and obsolete. Our grey nomads have discovered the wonders of the Australian bush, and we need to encourage young Australians to explore our own backyard. Doing some work while exploring it is an integral part of any gap-year experience, giving new insights into life on the land and a full appreciation of how this country works. Aside from the romantic element of getting out onto farms while seeing Australia, there is a practical element to this too. Just as holiday-makers can't come here, there are thousands of young Australians whose gap-year plans for 2021 are in tatters, as the world keeps its borders shut tight. Why not encourage the people who can't leave here to pick up for the people who can't get here?

A similar theory has informed recommendations 2 and 3, which look to help regional unemployed people into work on farms. From eight-year lows last year, regional unemployment has now soared, as has unemployment across Australia. While obviously not everybody will be capable of doing the work, there must be large numbers of people who would be able and willing to work on farms at this time. It could even be the leg-up into longer-term employment that could get people off government support sooner and more permanently. If the jobs are there and the workers are there, we must look at ways of connecting the two. This can be done through helping the bureaucracy assist people to find those jobs, which is addressed in recommendation 9, or creating the carrots and sticks to encourage people to take up that work. We've looked closely at making that carrot sweeter through allowing continued access to JobSeeker while working on a farm or providing a payment to cover travel and accommodation costs. With some long-term unemployed, we may also have to look at making the stick tougher but always understanding that there are some people who are just not cut out for work on the land. It has been excellent to see the speed with which the government has been working on these recommendations since this interim report was tabled only weeks ago.

Last night, the budget reported $17.4 million over two years to assist individuals to relocate to regional areas for employment opportunities, including for short-term agricultural work of up to at least six weeks duration. Modifications will include temporarily removing the waiting period to provide all jobseekers in employment services access to assistance to relocate to take up full-time, ongoing employment. This is the sort of speed and flexibility that our government will be remembered for and is why Australians are faring so well in this pandemic when the countries we normally compare ourselves with are faltering.

Thank you again to the chair of this committee, my committee colleagues and the team at the secretariat—especially the team at the secretariat for putting together this report. I commend this interim report and look forward to seeing the finished document in the coming months.

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