THE up-front cost of bringing over Pacific workers would be covered by the government, not farmers, Labor has promised if elected.
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The party announced its plan to tackle the agricultural labour shortage, which revolves around reforming and expanding the existing Pacific and seasonal labour schemes.
A four-year agriculture visa would be established under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility, the party's agriculture spokesperson Julie Collins said, with "portability, strong oversight mechanisms, and protections and rights for workers".
"We will ensure the federal government meets upfront travel costs for Pacific workers under the Seasonal Worker Program - costs which currently have to be met by Australian farmers," Ms Collins said.
"This will increase the attractiveness of the Seasonal Worker Program for Australian farmers."
It's understood a Labor government would pay all but $300 of the airfares to bring over a Pacific worker.
The reforms would also make it easier for Pacific workers to fill labour shortages by allowing participants of the Pacific Labour Scheme to bring in family members to live and work in Australia, then engage them to stay by promoting permanent residency on a new Pacific Engagement Visa.
The announcement is part of a broader policy designed to strengthen ties between Australia and the Pacific Islands, as fears about China's influence in the region grows.
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Labor is yet to clarify if the revamping of the Pacific schemes would come at the cost of scrapping the government's Ag Visa, which has been targeted at South East Asian countries. So far only Vietnam has signed up and no workers have arrived on-farm yet.
Labor home affairs spokesperson Kristina Keneally said her party had not seen the details of the deal with Vietnam because the government had kept them secret, and didn't know whether it was "agreement to have an agreement or they've actually signed a bilateral".
"But let me be clear, we will of course honour any agreement," Senator Keneally said.
"When we have seen the details of it, we will work with Vietnam to ensure that the agreement that they have reached is honoured."
Senator Keneally also said it would be the "exact same visa" and "all that changes are the source countries".
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud was certain that if the Coalition lost government "it's gone, Australian agriculture will lose an ag visa".
Mr Littleproud said Labor's policy was "simply extending a scheme we already have, renamed and rebadged".
"They will limit the workers that can come to Australian agriculture to just Pacific nations," Mr Littleproud said.
"We've said Australian agriculture needs more than that. It needs not just unskilled workers, but skilled and semi-skilled workers, and that's what the ag visa provides."
National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar, who has been lobbying for the current low-to-high skilled ag visa for five years, said Labor had "broken the hearts" of farmers and regional communities battling workforce storages.
He labelled Labor's pledge to keep the ag visa but change its source of workers as "tricky spin" that would keep the visa alive in name only.
"Pacific workers are highly valued by Australian farmers.... [but] the lived experience of farmers across agriculture shows the PALM schemes, as effective as they are, do not adequately address farmer's workforce requirements," Mr Mahar said.
"[Labor leader] Anthony Albanese told the NFF National Conference two weeks ago that Labor would have a new, better solution. Instead, today we got more of the same coupled with empty posturing.
"Labor has turned its back on a chance to be part of a solution for the sector's workforce crisis."
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Jamieson Murphy
Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@newcastleherald.com.au
