Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on this motion and commend the member for La Trobe for bringing the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, or PALM scheme, into the spotlight. PALM has been an incredibly valuable scheme for horticulturalists in Mallee and, indeed, across regional Australia. I have to say two things from the start. Firstly, Labor has an historic bias against Pacific Islanders working in this country. Why do I say that? It goes right back to Federation and keeps manifesting in the undermining of farmers. Secondly, the Nationals remain committed to the agricultural visa. PALM is a step in that direction but not the fully fledged ag visa regional Australia is crying out for. On both points what those opposite are never able to comprehend is that fruit picking and other types of farm labour simply will not be done by Australians. We have low unemployment, so those who might otherwise do farm labour are able to find other work, if they want to work at all. Labor have pressed on with anti-migrant-farmworker ideology regardless of the employment market or outcomes of labour market testing. Labor puts up arguments that PALM sometimes operates against the workers' best interests, but the reality is Labor have inherited a scheme they don't believe in and are doing everything they can to undermine PALM so that it can be scrapped.

The evidence is clear when it comes to the Vietnam Labour Mobility Arrangement, or VLMA. I met recently with Nathan Falvo of Orchard Tech from my electorate. Nathan's business, Orchard Tech, was selected and approved to take around 50 of the 1,000 Vietnamese workers that were expected in Australia by the middle of this year. The problem is the workers aren't here yet, and the best estimate now is that maybe some will arrive, if we're lucky, by autumn 2026. You can imagine Nathan's frustration when Orchard Tech were told their workers would be here by now. Now they have to find workers to cover them for the period until, theoretically, Vietnamese workers arrive. Both the interim and eventual Vietnamese workers will need to be trained, doubling the effort required of farmers.

Yet again, we see the Labor government undermining regional Australia to appease their union masters. The unions don't believe in farm labour, and they are forcing farmers to mechanise or simply rip out labour intensive crops and grow something that can be machine harvested—or turn their farms into industrial energy sites. Regional populations decline as a result, and you all start to wonder if, to use a phrase the immigration minister is fond of, it's all by design.

Regrettably, speaking of the immigration minister, who made some pointed comments about the Israeli government recently, it appears the Albanese Labor government are more focused on Palestine than productivity. Last week's roundtable was spruiked as a productivity roundtable, and then it became an economic roundtable—then it became a nothingburger for the economy because it was a stitch-up from the get-go for the union movement. There was never going to be any effort made to improve labour costs in Australia to lift productivity, and that's why Labor shifted the narrative. The two biggest drains on Australian productivity are, firstly, energy prices in pursuit of a net zero delusion and, secondly, labour costs and red tape. Labor's solution will be more taxes while killing productivity and growing the size, scope and reach of government into every facet of not just business but our personal lives as well.

See this speech in context