Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Deputy of the Nationals and Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud

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Katie Woolf spoke with Deputy of the Nationals and Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now throughout well yesterday actually we learned that a pretty
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: extensive announcement had been made around agriculture visas and well
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: visas for those traveling into Australia to try to well,
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  Speaker 1: I guess, support some of the different workforces that have
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  Speaker 1: really been struggling following on from the situation with COVID nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: We on numerous occasions have spoken tow NT farmers and
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  Speaker 1: heard about the struggles that they've had when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to finding people to do some of those picking and
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  Speaker 1: packing jobs. Now joining me on the line to tell
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  Speaker 1: us about some of these changes in the plan that
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  Speaker 1: they've got in place, well really to reintroduce these visas
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  Speaker 1: so that we're able to hopefully fill some of those positions.
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  Speaker 1: It is the Deputy Leader of the Nationals and Minister
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  Speaker 1: for Agriculture, David little Proud.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Good morning, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Minister, thank you so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: As I was saying, we've spoken to NT farmers on
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  Speaker 1: numerous occasions, it has been a real difficulty here in
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  Speaker 1: the territory over the recent months and since COVID kicked
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  Speaker 1: in to fill some of those jobs of picking and packing.
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  Speaker 1: How has this changed to the visa going to assist
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  Speaker 1: us here in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, there's already and it's important to appreciate there's
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  Speaker 2: already twenty five thousand men and women available from the
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  Speaker 2: Pacific nations that have come in the world. Haven't all
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  Speaker 2: come in. There's been about ten thousand those twenty five
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  Speaker 2: thousand that the states and territories are brought in, so
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  Speaker 2: they're still available. They're unskilled workers. The new ag visa
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  Speaker 2: not just covers unskilled workers, it goes to semi skilled
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  Speaker 2: and skilled as well, So it's complementary to our Pacific
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  Speaker 2: scheme and looks to countries in the Southeast Asia as
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  Speaker 2: well as the UK. Obviously it was part of the
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  Speaker 2: negotiations the National Party had with the Liberals of the
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  Speaker 2: UK Free Trade Agreement. So this is transformational. This is
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  Speaker 2: the biggest structural shift in agricultural labor in our nation's history.
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  Speaker 2: So what we're doing is trying to bring in the
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  Speaker 2: next generation of micro to live in regional Australia and
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  Speaker 2: to grow regional Australia, to grow agriculture. Because what we're
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  Speaker 2: doing is also giving these migrants an opportunity or pathway
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  Speaker 2: to permanent residency. So we want them to be part
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  Speaker 2: of Regional Australia. And we're saying that if you come
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  Speaker 2: here for three years and then commit to do a
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  Speaker 2: further period after that two years plus, then you're more
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  Speaker 2: likely to stay in Region Australia. You're more likely to
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  Speaker 2: stay in agriculture, be part of the community, and you'll
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  Speaker 2: stay on and you'll solve the structural problem we've got
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  Speaker 2: in agriculture around not just picking packing fruit, but also
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  Speaker 2: the skilled and semi skilled jobs in other parts agriculture
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  Speaker 2: and fisheries and forestry and even in the processing sector.
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  Speaker 2: So this is not just a short term solution, because
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  Speaker 2: we're going to have it up and going by the
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  Speaker 2: thirty September. It's a long term solution around chance shifting
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  Speaker 2: away from the backpacker model to a model that are
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  Speaker 2: citizens that want to live here in Australia and be
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  Speaker 2: part of our future.
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  Speaker 1: And Minister will it also is it also going to
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  Speaker 1: impact in hopefully a positive way, the hospitality industrial. Does
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  Speaker 1: it not sort of go that far?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we already made moves around the working holiday maker
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  Speaker 2: that it's if you're going above the tropic of Capricorn,
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  Speaker 2: so Northern Australia, which I'm also the Minister for, or
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  Speaker 2: you're into remote areas Western Queensland or Western Usuals, then
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  Speaker 2: the requirement to do the eighty eight days in agriculture
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  Speaker 2: is not there. So that there was opening up a
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  Speaker 2: pathway to work in the hospitality sector in the north
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  Speaker 2: of Australia, and that was an important change we made
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  Speaker 2: only a couple of months ago, so we've got to appreciate.
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  Speaker 2: But we're under about thirty thousand backpackers in the country now.
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  Speaker 2: Before COVID there was about one hundred and sixty thousand,
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  Speaker 2: so long term that we'll be able to bring that
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  Speaker 2: back and support the tourism industry and the hospitality industry,
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  Speaker 2: but just in the short term, we're obviously trying to
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  Speaker 2: keep as many of those backpackers in the country as
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  Speaker 2: it possibly can because we know the constraints just not
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  Speaker 2: in agriculture, it's also in hospitality and tourism as well.
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  Speaker 1: Minister. I know that there'll be some territories this morning
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  Speaker 1: going why do we need to bring people from another
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  Speaker 1: country to fill these jobs? Why can't we get Aussies
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  Speaker 1: doing these jobs? But in a lot of cases they're
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  Speaker 1: actually positions that we just simply haven't been able to fill,
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  Speaker 1: aren't they Oh, they can't be filled.
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  Speaker 2: Australians either don't want to do this work or they're
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  Speaker 2: too far away. You don't understand where a lot of
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  Speaker 2: our unemployed Australians are thousands of chiometers away. And much
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  Speaker 2: of this work is seasonal, so you've got to have
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  Speaker 2: a transient lifestyle. Can't have family commitments because you might
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  Speaker 2: start up in Darwin picking mangoes and then once they're finished,
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  Speaker 2: you move over to Bowen for the next part of
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  Speaker 2: the season. Then you'll work your way downstro at Bunderberg
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  Speaker 2: and eventually end up in shepherds and picking apples. So
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  Speaker 2: the challenge we've got is that while we've got unemployed
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  Speaker 2: Australians out there, not all of them are clients. We've
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  Speaker 2: incentivized them to try and to try and take these jobs.
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  Speaker 2: About four thousand have taken up the incentives to travel
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  Speaker 2: and we will reimburse up to six thousand dollars of
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  Speaker 2: their travel costs. Four thousand men and women will not
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  Speaker 2: cut the mustard. We're saying, just in horticulture alone, there'll
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  Speaker 2: be a thirty thousand shortfall by February March next year.
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  Speaker 2: It's already in the twenty thousands now, and that's why
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  Speaker 2: we're encouraging not just to bring in Pacific workers where
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  Speaker 2: there's shortages, but also work off this new ag visa
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  Speaker 2: because farmers can't sit a ound. Wait if it's ripe,
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  Speaker 2: it's not rip in the paddy. It has to get
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  Speaker 2: to your plate and we can't bring people from thousands
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  Speaker 2: of chiometers' way just on a whim. But we tried everything,
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  Speaker 2: We've thrown the kitchen sinking and these jobs are still
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  Speaker 2: market testing. Well. I'm poort to know that Australias still
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  Speaker 2: get first crack at these jobs before anyone's bought in.
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  Speaker 1: Minister. One of the things that has been a big
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  Speaker 1: issue for us in the top end or all around
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  Speaker 1: the territory, and I know that you would have spoken
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  Speaker 1: to Nta farmers and others about it, Senator Sam McMahon
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  Speaker 1: as well, is the fact that you know with some
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  Speaker 1: of these jobs we've then been trying to obviously in
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  Speaker 1: Tea farmers have been trying to bring some of that
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  Speaker 1: workforce into the territory and haven't been able to have
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  Speaker 1: somewhere for them to quarantine or that quarantine has been
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  Speaker 1: a real difficulty. Has there been much movement in this
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  Speaker 1: space sort of in the short term.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've been trying to work with states and territories
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  Speaker 2: and they wanted to maintain ownership of quarantining of agricultural
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  Speaker 2: workers and we respect that because they own health protocols
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  Speaker 2: and which people have to quarantine. Each state's doing a
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  Speaker 2: little bit different. In South Australia they create their own
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  Speaker 2: facility and now doing in country quarantining for venta latten workers.
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  Speaker 2: In Queensland they're doing on farm to a small scale.
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  Speaker 2: So every state's done a little bit different. In New
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  Speaker 2: York's in your territory. In the Northern Territory they're using
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  Speaker 2: how it springs. There's also a facility at Blading Point
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  Speaker 2: that Northern tantric government leases and it looks as over
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  Speaker 2: Western Australian government, well quarantine are they're grain harvest workers there.
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  Speaker 2: But it's come back to what the agreement was a
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  Speaker 2: national cabinet by First Ministers was the industry and states
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  Speaker 2: and territories would decide how it would be done. They'd
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  Speaker 2: share the responsiblebility and the cost of that. We've said great,
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  Speaker 2: you go and look after it. We found twenty five
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  Speaker 2: thousand minute when from the Pacific that can come. Now
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  Speaker 2: we're going to give you find you more through the
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  Speaker 2: ag visa through Southeast Asia and the UK that can
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  Speaker 2: come will stamp the visas, but your chief Health officers
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  Speaker 2: and premiers and chief ministers have to approve it.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to have sorry, just to go back
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  Speaker 1: to that point, the WA government is going to be
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  Speaker 1: quarantining some of those workers at Bladon Point. How soon
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  Speaker 1: is that going to happen? Because I know that's something
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  Speaker 1: that we've been talking about here in the territory and
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  Speaker 1: NT farmers have been flagging for quite some time as
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  Speaker 1: being a spot where they could potentially have people quarantine,
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  Speaker 1: but it had never been sort of approved or it
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  Speaker 1: had never gone ahead.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is a relationship between WA and Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: We simply stay away from that. We allow them to
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  Speaker 2: work it through because their agreement is that the states
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  Speaker 2: and industry work through the quarantining arrangements. They organize it
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  Speaker 2: and pay for it between the two of them. Western
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  Speaker 2: Australia don't want a quarantine you they're foreign workers in WA.
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  Speaker 2: They have a risk aversion to that. Their Chief Health office.
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  Speaker 2: So they've gone to your government and said, well, why
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  Speaker 2: can't we use blading point And as I understand that
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  Speaker 2: there's negotiations taking place as we speak between WA and MT.
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  Speaker 2: Now whether that extends for it to remain open after
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  Speaker 2: WA use it, that's a matter for the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 2: government and Westernustralian government to get to it, to get
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  Speaker 2: to an agreement on We simply say that once you
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  Speaker 2: get an agreement and you can and you can say
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  Speaker 2: your chief health officers come to with it, we will
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  Speaker 2: stamp the visa. That is the protocol that the premiers,
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  Speaker 2: chief ministers and Prime ministers agree to a national cabinet.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we might have to catch up with the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory minister to try and find out a bit more
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  Speaker 1: detail about that. Hey, just stump back to those agriculture visas.
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  Speaker 1: How quickly are these going to come into place?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they will be determined by how quickly we can
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  Speaker 2: get the bilateral arrangements with the countries in negotia. Because
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  Speaker 2: you got to understand what we might offer a visa.
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  Speaker 2: It's up to their sovereign country to decide whether they
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  Speaker 2: want their people to be to take them up or not.
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  Speaker 2: So those discussions will start to take place as we speak,
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  Speaker 2: and we're targeting those countries that we already have close
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  Speaker 2: ties with and immigration ties with so that we could
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  Speaker 2: expedite it. But we're hoping that soon after the thirty September,
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  Speaker 2: when we expect this all up and going is it,
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  Speaker 2: we'll have some of those bilaterals agreed to by other
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  Speaker 2: countries and if they've done that, then effectively it'll be
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  Speaker 2: a matter of industry finding those people that they want
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  Speaker 2: in the skill sets and then working through the normal
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  Speaker 2: process with the states around quarantining and we will stamp
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  Speaker 2: for visas well.
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  Speaker 1: Deputy Leader of the Nationals and also the Minister for
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  Speaker 1: Agriculture and Northern Australia, David little Proud. Good to have
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  Speaker 1: you on the show this morning, mate. We'll have to
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  Speaker 1: catch up with you again at some point.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm hoping to get up there in the
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  Speaker 2: next couple of weeks before things being equal, so I'm
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  Speaker 2: trying to get back to the territory up about a
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  Speaker 2: month ago, but I'm trying to get back up to
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  Speaker 2: have another good look around on Sagaday.
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  Speaker 1: Oh good stuff. Well, we'll catch up with you then,
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much. For your time this morning.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having thank you