Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Davey, for your question. As the regional specialists, the Nationals are extremely proud to be part of a government that unashamedly backs our primary industry. We know that agriculture needs workers. It needs workers now and will well into the future. Today our government has announced further details outlining the establishment of the Australian agriculture visa. It's a big win for farmers; it's a big win for rural communities who rely on agriculture; and it is a big win for the state of New South Wales and the rice industry. This is one of the biggest structural reforms in the history of our agricultural sector. Farmers have been calling for it and we, as a government, have delivered on it. The important new visa will support Australian farmers now and into the future by providing a wider pool of workers to help meet increasing seasonal workforce demands.

The visa will be available to skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers right across the agriculture sector, including meat processing, the fishing industry, the forestry industry, the dairy industry and horticulture. The initial regulatory framework implementing this visa will be in place by the end of September, with full implementation of the demand-driven visa category within three years. The ag visa, over time, will respond to systemic workforce shortages and was developed as a result of the changes to the Working Holiday Maker Program, which was developed as part of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement. It will also include a pathway to permanent residency, potentially giving the workers who help get the crops off the opportunity to actually settle permanently in regional Australia with us. Importantly, workers under the visas will be covered by the same workplace laws, entitlements and protections as Australian citizens.