Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

tor WATT (—) (): I thank Senator Ciccone for another great question about agriculture and industry, which I know he is very interested in. Firstly, I want to echo the words of the Prime Minister who said, in relation to the summit, that it delivered outcomes that even he could not have hoped for. To see the leaders of groups divided for so long under the previous coalition government come together to discuss these major workforce and training issues was really something special, and that was certainly the mood of the room. That applies to agriculture as much as to other industries. The National Farmers Federation and its members were in the same room as unions covering agricultural workers for the first time in many years, and I thank all of those participants for their collaboration and for putting the interests of industry, farmers and workers first, rather than political gains.

There were some great outcomes from the summit that will benefit the agriculture sector straight away. The government announced an additional $1 billion in joint funding with the states for fee-free TAFE in 2023, and I'll be working with industry, unions and rural Australia to ensure that agriculture get its fair share. We also announced that the migration cap would be lifted from 165,000 to 195,000, including 34,000 places for the regions, an increase of 9,000 on that which the previous government put in place. Again, this increase will help fill some of the gaps in the agriculture workforce. The government also announced money for visa processing, to speed it up and clear the backlog of nearly a million people who are waiting because of the previous government's inaction. Again, that will help the agriculture workforce. These measures, of course, come on top of the government's existing commitments, including to expand the PALM scheme and strengthen worker protections.

At the end of the summit last week the NFF President, Fiona Simson, said that they got sick of waiting for action under the previous government. The ag sector waited for a number of years for the ag visa. They waited for years for investment in training. They waited for years for any movement, and now we're already delivering after 107 days—(Time expired)