Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

KATTER () (): I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that currently the Australian agricultural sector is experiencing critical workforce shortages and that impact of the removal of the '88 day farm work clause for backpackers' is significant, and without this requirement there will be little, if any, incentive for backpackers to come, let alone stay, working in regional communities for the length of time needed for their training to be a viable option for farmers;

(2) notes that this legislation has failed to explain or adequately address the significant impacts to regional economies as a result of this clause being removed, setting a dangerous precedence for similar trade agreements in the future; and

(3) calls on the government to:

(a) provide evidence that the United Kingdom has requested this clause be omitted and provide evidence supporting the concerns regarding the backpacker on-farm workforce;

(b) ensure a proper and thorough analysis is undertaken into the financial impacts to farmers and regional tourism economies as result of this clause being removed; and

(c) deploy a highly specific advertising program in all major metropolitan centres focused on attracting backpackers to work on farms in regional areas".

It is unbelievable to me that the last government, when they knew, would have proceeded with this bill knowing it would put the country areas at an enormous disadvantage. The people in this place, quite rightly, put in previous agreements that backpackers coming to Australia had to serve time in country areas. This bill effectively removes that requirement for United Kingdom migrants. Now, the people coming in from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England speak English, they have a cultural background very similar to our own and, for various other reasons, make very good backpackers. They comprise the bulk of our backpackers and fit in very well with another group of people, the Japanese, who also have very similar cultural backgrounds to Australia. We have a wonderful banana-packing competition, and all the various foreign groups have their place in the stands at the banana-packing competition. It's a really wonderful evening. What you've done here is effectively take out the United Kingdom areas completely. They vanish, because there's no way they're going to go to a place they've never heard of before in their lives when they can go to Sydney and hang around on Bondi Beach. That is what has happened in the past, and it's what's going to happen now as a result of this legislation.

I have never, in 50 years as a member of parliament, seen a place that is so completely out of step with the people of Australia. You in the major parties don't seem to understand that over one person in three did not vote for you in the last election. This has never happened before in the nation's history. Has it changed you in any way? Absolutely not. I don't see a single change in direction between the last government and the new government. Yes, you might be a little more kind to the union representatives, undoubtedly, but we're not talking about any substantial change here.

I represent about six to seven per cent of Australia's fruit and vegetable production. Thanks to your free trade deals, we are now, and have been for 10 years, a net importer of fruit and vegetables. Do you have any cognisance of that fact? No. I have never heard a single person in this place get up and say that it's a disgrace that that stupid fellow who led the party that I was once associated with was walking around saying, 'We're going to be the food bowl of Asia.' We will be the begging bowl of Asia, and I'll come to that in a moment.

I went out to Mr Johnny Gambino, one of the outstanding rural leaders in Australia. He got the welfare payments for farmers, which will enable them to hold the banks off. Something like one farmer in five is now on his farm because of those welfare payments, and they were delivered to this place by the Mareeba Rural Action Council, which is in the same area that gave us the labour movement in Australia. It was the home area of Red Ted Theodore, who was the founder of the labour movement in this country. So what an outstanding area!

I visited John. He was 82 or 83, I think, at the time. I said, 'Where is he?' 'He's down picking mangoes.' At 82, he was down picking mangoes. So I went down to the bottom of the paddock, and there was a line of mangoes about 200 or 300 metres long and about up to my waist in height, because we couldn't sell them, because someone shot their mouth off about China, and China cut off mango imports. They cut off $39 billion worth of trade. What was the value of your free trade agreement? It was just a load of rubbish. It was just a joke. When one country wants to ignore it, that country does. America just decided, because aluminium prices were down, that they wouldn't have any aluminium in there. Again, the whole thing is a mockery. It's a nice little piece of paper. It's enabled a lot of public servants to have nice holidays overseas, and people come in here.

When Tony Abbott stood up in this place and led the cheering for the free trade deal with China I said, 'His time is numbered; he will not be here in six months time.' I said that to my colleague from Tasmania, and he said, 'You reckon, eh?' I said, 'Yeah,' and in three months he was gone, because the people of Australia don't listen to your rubbish about free trade. They know it's farcical.

I will get very detailed. In my parliamentary office are photos of Black Jack McEwen and Red Ted Theodore. McEwen said, 'The most important thing in government is getting it right.' Theodore epitomised getting it right. Theodore arguably took ownership of all the surface lands of Queensland and built the means of production. The government built the means of production. He then belted out the land to the ordinary people of Australia. Men who worked in the mines became owners of cattle stations. Canecutters became canefarmers. Railway workers became dairy farmers. Mineworkers became mine owners. All this was facilitated by government—building the dairy factories, the sugar mills and the meatworks. It was done not by your free-market economic rationalists but by economic nationalists—men who were determined to build their country.

Today, the economic nationalism of Theodore and McEwen has been replaced by a creeping corporate colonisation introduced by the economic rationalists. They reimposed upon us 19th-century laissez faire capitalism. It's a pity the schools didn't teach some of our kids the history, because if they knew what free trade leads to—it leads to kids of 12 working in factories. In this new free-market world we have what the ALP-LNP calls economic freedom. In the economic rationalist Alice in Wonderland world, in the economy and the commercial world the rule of law is replaced of course by fang and claw.

The big corporate sharks now can eat the little fishes. The problem for Australia is that, except for Woolworths and Coles, Australia doesn't have any big sharks, so we get eaten. The outcome for Australia has been disastrous. The biggest export earner for Australia for every one of the last 200 years was wool. In 1990 it was still Australia's biggest export earner, earning more than coal. The free marketeers, Paul Keating and Peter Costello, deregulated the wool industry; 72 per cent of the industry is gone, 72 per cent of the sheep herd. So, there you go: you wrecked the biggest and best industry that we ever had in this country; you wrecked it. The Australian motor vehicle industry in the seventies and the eighties supplied 72 per cent of our motor vehicles. Proud Australians proudly drove Australian motor vehicles; 72 per cent of the cars in Australia were built in Australia. Your house was built out of cement, galvanised iron and steel; 100 per cent of these items were provided by Australian industry. House construction is now far from 100 per cent Australian, and not a single motor vehicle is built in Australia. Australia, with a dozen oil refineries, supplied all its own petrol and diesel. Now only three per cent of our fuel comes from Australia's refineries. Your stove, your air-conditioner, your TV, your fridge—all were made in Australia, and now they're not.

As far as fuel goes, you've decided it's a better idea to send $40 billion overseas every year to buy fuel than to produce it ourselves, which we can do, and the crossbench is going to show you that we can do it, that you don't have to buy a single ounce of fuel from overseas. We can produce it all ourselves. Well, you can't do it. We'll show you how to do it.

And whilst the prices of metals and minerals have tripled in the last decade, Australia gets no benefit, even though two-thirds of our exports are mining. This is because, whereas 20 years ago four of Australia's big five mining companies were Australian owned, four of the big five are now foreign owned. So, a 300 per cent increase in mineral prices does not benefit Australia at all. In fact, over the last eight or nine years, mine wages have actually fallen, from nearly $200,000 a year to around $130,000 a year. The much maligned CFMMEU, trying desperately to hold onto them, hasn't received much help from the ALP, I can assure you. The CFMMEU war cry—do we work to live or do we live to work?—has been imposed upon mine workers. So, not only are their wages going down but FIFO mining predominates, destroying family life, sport and recreation. If your son is playing rugby league and your daughter's in the school play, Dad and Mum are not there to see it.

Australia's rural industries have been, for 100 or 200 years, wool, cattle, grain and cane, with Australia always being self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables. In times of agricultural crisis, ameliorative measures were provided by old Labor—not the current Labor Party—and successive Country Party governments. Thirty years ago the free-market paradigm was imposed, not competition policy. Ameliorative intervention was abolished. So now, whenever rural industries take a hit—fire, flood, drought, market crash—whereas once the government intervened, to help the farmers restore their numbers and their cultivation land, this does not now happen. Concessional loans and delayed repayments were always paid, creating profits for government, and restored the agricultural economy. Sheep numbers are down 72 per cent. Cattle numbers are down 23 per cent. The dairy herd, following deregulation, is down 17 per cent. Cane production, following deregulation and Australia's failure to move to ethanol, has fallen by one per cent. And, believe it or not, Australia has become a net importer of fruit and vegetables and has been for nearly a decade. Mining, in contrast, has had a boom in production, but the benefits go overseas. Farming is going down, down, down; secondary industry: gone. What a wonderful success story you free marketeers have had! And the storybooks are going to tell the story, and the name of every one of you will be in those storybooks. You did this to your country, and you won't escape. As a published historian, I can tell you that you won't escape. The two major political parties are rife with free marketeers and lily pad lefties. Be assured that the lily pad lefties are alive and well in the Liberal Party as well as Labor.

So what do we do about all of this? I wrote, with all humility, a book which many described as the best book they've ever read. Nasty people say, 'This may well have been because the kind of people who read your book have probably never read a book before.' This, of course, is meant to be an insult but is rather powerful praise for them and for the book. The book starts with the Kalkadoon holding up British settlement for 60 years. Many died, but they ensured that many whitefellas died as well. The rivers and creeks—landmarks of my homeland, the greater Cloncurry area—tell the story: Fiery Creek, Massacre Inlet, Spear Creek, Mistake Creek, Rifle Creek, Gunpowder Creek, Battle Mountain and Police Creek—a tragic story, yes, but a story of great patriotism and heroism.

The second part of this book is about the labour movement. A young worker in his 20s was sent down a mine for the third time in his life to what would be certain death. He survived and formed a union. Two others died. Within 13 years he'd taken over Queensland. Within two decades he had control of Australia. Theodore's Labor—and, after the split, McEwen's Country Party—went on to create a situation where, from the most barren, godforsaken country on earth, by 1970 Australia had become the third-richest nation in the world. The book tells the story of the Kalkadoon First Australians, from whom my home town was founded; the story of Theodore; and the story of my battalion, the 49th, one of three battalions outnumbered on Kokoda by 15 to one and outgunned by 600 to one in machine guns. Truly these stories warrant the respect of that book, An Incredible Race of People.

In the recent elections, one in three Australians voted for the Labor Party and one in three voted for the Liberal Party, but over one in three rejected the Labor-Liberal axis and free-market economics—but maybe not virtual morality, the latest intellectual fashion trend. Currently, the virtual morality is that now we must save the planet. When I was at university, the intellectual fashion statement of the day was communism. Communism would overthrow the ruling class and money would go to the people. This paradigm quickly went out of fashion when we, the university graduates, became the ruling class. We took the money that was supposed to go to the people. It was a little sad that, whilst we were all out touting Mao Zedong's 'Little Red Book', at the same time Mao was busily murdering 48 million people. I submit that we may be making some similar mistakes now. In the recent federal elections, one in three Australians managed to get 15 members of this parliament. The famous 15 marched to an entirely different drum—and entirely different drums between them, but an entirely different drum. (Time expired)

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the member for Kennedy's amendment. He is indeed a passionate supporter of rural and regional Australia. He does draw to our attention, though, a very important concern in regard to the removal of the 88-day farm work clause for backpackers visiting Australia. In listening to the member for Kennedy, I guess I would say that what he paints is such an extraordinary picture of rural and regional Australia as a place that would be of enormous benefit for backpackers from the United Kingdom to come and experience. Indeed, the member for Wannon made a similar point about travelling and working in each other's countries as being so important as a cultural exchange.

But more important than that is that we're now in an environment with an historically low level of workers out in rural and regional Australia. We've got the highest worker shortages that we've experienced in a very, very long time, and this isn't just an immaterial thing. This is an incredibly important thing when we look at our food production. The member for Mayo described quite powerfully the impact this has on things like our cherry crops, our viticulture and our cattle production. The role that international backpackers play is important.

The member for Kennedy hasn't just described a problem; he's actually come forward with some really important propositions, and one is that, before this is enacted—before we do remove this 88-day farm work clause—there needs to be some serious investigation into the impact this will have on farm workforce. I applaud him for that. He also suggests that if this change to our visas proceeds then we need to see some serious and targeted investment from our government into an advertising program that makes it clear to our international backpackers that there's real opportunity, real experience and a real need for them to come out into rural and regional Australia.

He highlights that it could be very easy for international backpackers to just arrive in Sydney and spend all their time on Bondi Beach. While Bondi is a great place to be, getting out into northern Queensland, coming into my electorate of Indi or getting around rural and regional Australia are extremely important experiences but, more than that, really valuable to our farming communities. I second this amendment from the member for Kennedy and thank him for raising this concern here in the House.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to speak briefly to the amendment and to make a brief statement on behalf of the government. I want to thank the member for Kennedy for his contribution. It was thoughtfully expressed, and I know they're very longstanding positions of the member for Kennedy. The member talked about some of his critiques of the discussion about trade in Australia, and actually there's a lot in his comments that I agree with. I think there has been far too much ideology in these discussions and not enough common sense. I do think the agreements before us pass the test. There are huge benefits here for Australia and huge benefits for agriculture and for the regional and rural parts of our country.

I think it's important to note the stage we're at with this agreement. The agreement has been concluded with the UK. The amendment is not something the government will be supporting at this very late stage of the discussion—to make a change on the floor of the parliament as this works its way through. I'm very conscious of the big-picture problem that the member for Kennedy raises about labour shortages in rural and regional Australia: they're acute, they're real and they are very certainly affecting the lives of the people we represent in this parliament.

The member will be aware that there a very large amount of work has been done on this problem since the new government came to power in May. We have processed literally millions of visas. When we arrived in office there were a million visas sitting in the system, with no plan to process them, and that situation is changing quite quickly. The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme will be an important part of the solution here. We've got the Work and Holiday program associated with the Indonesia trade agreement, which continues to grow, and I believe there are over 5,000 positions available under that.

I'll conclude by making the final point that the agreement we've made with the UK involves some trade-offs. While there are aspects of the agreement that the member for Kennedy raises issue with, it's important to note there are other parts of the agreement that will actually significantly increase the labour supply coming to Australia from the UK. I understand the points of view that are being raised, and I'm very respectful of them, but the government will not be supporting the amendment.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll just make the observation that the people coming in from a lot of these countries are not fitting in at all well, and we're having shocking problems with a lot of these groups. I just want the attention of the minister, Madam Deputy Speaker. Minister, if I could just point out that—

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the member for Kennedy take his seat? You've already had an opportunity to speak. The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Kennedy has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted, with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the amendment be disagreed to.

Question agreed to.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.