PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr REPACHOLI (Hunter) (17:32): There is no argument from me about the importance of agriculture, and there's no argument from anyone on this side either. Our farmers feed our country, support thousands of jobs and keep regional towns going. They produce some of the world's best food and best fibre.

In the Hunter, agriculture is part of who we are. From cattle and dairy to vineyards, poultry and thoroughbreds, we know its value. We also know the sector faces real workforce shortages, but this motion is not a serious plan to fix that.

It's another political stunt from those opposite that's all over the place on migration. None of them are left here. They've all left.

This is so important, but they've all left. So, depending on who you are and when you ask, you'll get a different answer. Before the election, the coalition ruled out cuts to working holiday-makers.

Then Senator Bragg ruled them back in at the National Press Club. Then the coalition ruled them out again. They called for cuts to student visas.

Then they said student visas could remain unchanged. Then they said they'd prioritise the skills Australia needs while wanting to bring back the golden ticket for wealthy investors. They ruled out cuts to family visas.

Then they said those cuts could come from family visas. Their plan is to use migration as a political weapon and chase votes from One Nation. That will not deliver a farm worker.

It will not train an apprentice, it will not build a house and it will not put a nurse in a hospital. If the coalition wants deep cuts to skilled migration, it needs to tell Australians exactly which workers they are going to cut out. Is it going to be the nurses?

Is it going to be the doctors? Is it going to be the construction workers or the aged-care workers or—you know what? It's going to be the skilled agricultural workers they suddenly came to care about.

When Labor came to government, net overseas migration was soaring. We inherited a broken system, a massive visa backlog and growing numbers of people stuck on bridging visas. Temporary migrants were being left permanently temporary, with no proper pathway to stay and no proper pathway to leave.

Those opposite deregulated the system, weakened worker protections and ripped funding straight out of TAFE and training. Net overseas migration has fallen by 45 per cent from its post-pandemic peak. We've tightened student visas, shut down dodgy providers and closed loopholes that allowed people to jump from one visa to another.

We're building a migration system that delivers the skills Australia needs while cracking down on exploitation and rorts. We established the Agricultural Workforce Working Group and the agriculture labour taskforce. We're bringing farmers, employers, unions and government together to find practical ways to attract, train, protect and retain workers.

Since January 2023, fee-free TAFE has delivered more than 28,000 enrolments in agriculture related courses. That's what long-term workforce plans look like. That means more training for Aussies, for good jobs, while making sure employers can access overseas workers when they genuinely need them.

We're also strengthening the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme. The number of PALM scheme workers has grown, from around 8,000 in March 2020 to more than 32,600 by the end of June 2026. Almost 30,000 of those workers are supporting the agriculture and meat processing areas.

That's real workers on the ground supporting real Australian businesses. Compare that to the Nationals' failed agriculture visa. They had an ag visa, then they didn't, and then they had one again.

After all the announcements and political carry-on, it didn't deliver a single worker to an Australian farmer while they were in government. We've committed more than $5 million since 2024 to support a skilled and safe agricultural workforce. That includes funding for farm safety, AgCAREERSTART, the AgConnections pilot and the Fair Farms training and certification program.

We've also invested $85 million to help migrants get their overseas skills recognised faster. More than 20,000 migrants have already been made available to work in construction trades through faster skills assessment. This government will continue to keep working with the agriculture sector on workforce pressures.

We'll keep strengthening PALM. We'll keep investing in TAFE, apprentices and skills. We'll also keep running a responsible migration system with the national interest at heart.

They don't deserve lectures from a coalition that created a mess, that ignored workforce shortages for nine years and still can't agree on its own migration policy. That's why I will not be supporting this political stunt. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Aldred ): The time allotted for this debate has expired.

The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.